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THE 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 

IN 

GEORGIA AND FLORIDA 
From 1785 to 1865. 

ri 

BY 

GEO. G. SMITH, Je., 

OF NORTH GEORGIA CONFERENCE. 



I I r 



MACON, GA.: 
J N O. W. BURKE & C O 
1877. 



THE LIBRARY 
OF CONGREti 

WASMIKOTOll 



Copyright by 
GEO. G. SMITH. Jr., 
1877. 



PUINTINC; AND 1 ;uuK 1 i 1 N UI N ( i Co., 
I'KIN TICK'S AMJ P.OOKIUNDKKS, 



13 East \'2tk St., 

N1£\V ^OKlv. 



Belrica t (on. 



To LOYICK PIERCE, D.D. 
My Dear Doctor: 

To whom should this History be so justly dedicated 
as to yourself, who, for over seventy years, has been so closely 
connected with it. More than to any man living or dead has 
Georg-ia Methodism been indebted to you. 

Personally, it gives me, the grandson of Isaac Smith and 
of John Howard, your personal friends and co-laborers, great 
pleasure to pay this tribute of affection to one whom I have known 
all my life, and knoT\Ti only to love. 

May God, who has so wonderfully blessed you, still ' ' command 
his loving kindness in the day-time, and in the night may his song 
be with you." 

Affectionately, 

GEO. G. SMITH, Jr. 



To CHARLES J. BAKER, 

Atliol^ near Baltimore, 
My Dear Bro. : 

But for your kindness, in all probability, 
this book would never have been written. When lying 
wounded nigh to death, a stranger in a strange land, you 
found me, bore me to your own home, bound up my 
wounds, and in good time sent me on my way. 

Though your views of church polity and mine are not 
the same, yet we have seen eye to eye on all questions of 
doctrine or experience. 

A Methodist yourself, the son of one of the earliest 
of Maryland Methodists, in all Methodist History you are 
interested, and many names found in these pages have been 
to you as household words ; for Asbury, Lee, George, 
Roberts, and many others mentioned, found joyous welcome 
at Friendsbury, under your father's roof ; and their succes- 
sors in the ministry of every branch of Methodism have 
had glad greetings at Athol. 

Accept then this feeble tribute, from yours, 
Most affectionately and gratefully, 

GEO. G. SMITH, Jr. 



PREFACE. 



It has been my design to write a History of Methodism 
in Georgia and Florida, chiefly for the Methodists of 
those States. 1 have therefore entered into a minute- 
ness of detail otherwise objectionable. I have also 
used Methodist technicalities sufliciently clear to those 
who will be interested in my work. 

While the labor of preparing the book has been in 
the main a pleasant one, yet there have been many 
difficulties in the Wci y of its prosecution. The absence 
of printed literature, or of written documents bearing 
upon these early days, has proved very embarrassing. 

Through the mercy of God, Dr. Lovick Pierce still 
lives. Without his aid this History could not have been 
written. He has cheerfully given me information 
which has lit up many a dark place. 

I have not written a History satisfactory to myself; 
I cannot hope that it will be entirely so to any one else. 

It is due to the Conferences, to say that this work 
is an independent one ; that I was not requested to 



Till PREFACE. 

prepare it; and that for its utterances T alone am 
responsible. Bishop Pierce, wh(^ was appointed to do 
the work by tlie Georgia Conferences, has had so much 
upon his hands, tliat he kindly relinquished to me the 
office of searching into the early records. I trust, in 
in some future day, he will be able to supply a yoluine 
such as he only can furnish. 

I haye endeayored to give the authority for the 
statements I haye made, but oftentime have been 
unable to do so. I therefore append an imperfect 
list of the books consulted. 

GEO. G. SMITH, Jr. 

La Grange, Ga. 



LIST OF AUTHORITIES. 



Wesley Journals. 1st vol. 

Asburj Journal. 5 vols. 

Coke's Life. 

Moore's Life of Wesley. 

Stevens' History of Georgia. 1st vol. 

White's Statistics. 

White's Hist. Collections. 

Sherwood's Gazetteer. 

Thrift's Life of Jesse Lee. 

Life and Times of Jesse Lee, by L. M. Lee, D.D. 

Minutes of the Conferences. 6 vols. 

Life of James Jenkins. 

Becollections of J ames Dunwody. 

Life Cornelius Y/inter by Jay. 

Sprague Annall's Methodist Pulpit. 

Life Jesse Mercer. 

Campbell's History of the Baptists. 

Sprague Annall's Baptist Pulpit. 

Stevens' Memorial Sermon. 

Methodist Magazine from 1818 to 1830. 12 vols. 
Olin's Life and Letters. 

Bound Volumes K C. Advocate, 1838 to 1866. 38 vols, 
Stevens' History M. E. Church. 4 vols. 
Lorenzo Dow's Journal. 

Jackson's Memorial x^ddress of Judge Longstreet. 

Bennett's Memorials. 

Life Elisha Peiryman. 

Georgia Scenes. 

Georgians by Gilmer. 

Georgia Lawyer by Andrews. 

Life Elijah Hedding. 

Pickett's History of Alabama. 

Etc. Etc. Etc. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 
1735-1737. 

John Weslbt in Georgia — Charles Wesley— Benjamin Ingham — 
Gkokqb Whitefield — Cornelius Winter 15 



CHAPTER II. 

Beligious History of Georgia to the Introduction of Method- 
ism — The Colonists — The Episcopal Church — The Lutherans — 
The Presbyterians — The Baptists ^ 



chapter hi. 

1786-1791:. 

Methodism in America before 1785 — Beverley Allen — James Fos- 
ter — Thomas Humphries — John Major — Condition of the 
People — Henry Parks — Richard Ivy — Francis Asbury in Geor- 
gia—First Conference— Hope Hull First Church— Thomas 
Haynes — Conference at Grant's — James Conner — Thomas 
Grant— David Merri wether— Thomas Coke— Elbert Circuit^ 
James Jenkins— Reuben Ellis— Union of the Georgia and 
South Carolina Conferences. 28 



chapter IV. 

Conference of 1795 — Philip Bruce— Decline in the Church, and 
ITS Cause — Samuel Cowles — First General Conference — 
Enoch George — Conference of 1798 — Benjamin Blanton — 
Jesse Lee in Georgia — George Dougherty— Charles Tait — 
Ralph Banks — Alexander McCaine — Conference 1799 — Stith 
Mead — John Garvin — Conference 1800 — Britton Capel — 
Nicolas Snethen — Conference 1801 and 1802 — J. H. Mellard — 
Great Revival — Camp-Meetings — Conference 1803 — Lorenzo 
Dow— Lewis Myers — Large Increase — Conference 1804 67 



xii 



COIS; TENTS. 



CHAPTER V. 
1805-1812. 

CONFEKENCE OF 1805— LOVICK AND ReDDICK Pie2RCE — JoSEPH TaRPLET 

—Sparta and Milledgeyille Circuits— Apalachee Circuit — 
LovicK Pierce on his First Georgia Circuit— W. M. Kennedy— 
The Ohoopee Circuit — Asbury again in Georgia — Conference 
of 1806 AT Sparta— Jesse Lee— First Society in Savannah-- 
Sparta Camp-Meeting — Judge Stith — Mrs. Dr. Bird— ^^mes 
Russell — The Tombigbee Mission — W>i. Arnold — General Con- 
ference OF 1808 — Jos. Trayis — Bro. Bob Martin, or Shouting 
UNDER Difficulties — Annual Conference of 1808, at Liberty 
Chapel— Wm. McKendree— Wm. Capers— LoyickPierce_^^_on^ 
his First District— Josias RANDLE^^^iiixTARD~""Tui)GE— Wm. 
Redwine— Robert L. Edwards— Osborn Rogers— Epps Tuck- 
er — John Collingsworth — Conference of 1809— John McVenn— 
Jno. S. Ford — Milledgeyille a Station — Whitman C. Hill — 
Conference of 1811— General Reyiew 160 



CHAPTER YI. 

From 1812 to the Death of Asbury in 1816. Henry 

Bass. 

James O. Andrews — Samuel K. Hodges — Location of Loyick Pierce 
— Sketch of his Wife — Thomas Darley — Location of Russell — 
Allen Turner — Elijah Bird — Continued Decline — Asbury's 
Death— Character of Asbury, etc., etc 106 



chapter yii. 

1816-1823. 

General Conference of 1816— New Bishops — The Cabinet— R. R, 
Roberts — Conference at Columbia— Andrew Hammill — Death 
OF Hull— Asbury— Morgan— R. Green— George Hill— Jno. L. 
Jerry— John Simmons— Thomas Samford— General Confer- 
ence OF 1820— Isaac Smith— Jno. B. Chappell— James Dunwoody 
— John Howard — Wm. J. Parks — Thomas L. Wynn — Peyton L, 
Wade — Elijah Sinclair — Constant Decline— Cause of it ISl 



CONTENTS. 



xiii 



CHAPTEE VIII. 
Fkom 1823 TO THE Formation of the Georgia Confer- 
ence IN 1830, 

CoSfFERENCE OF 1828— Wm. CaPERS AT MiLLEDGEYILLE— MONROE MIS- 
SION— GeO. Hull — Yellow River Mission — Gwinnett Mission — 
Chattahoochee Mission— John Slade — Introduction of Metho- 
dism into Florida — Conference of 1824— Tallahassee — Tilman 
Snead — General Conference of 1824 — Jos. Travis — Conference 
of 1825 — J. A. Few — Conference of 1827 — Nicholas Talley — 
Joshua Soule — Jesse Boring — Great Revival — A. B. Long- 
street — Conference op 1828 — James Dannelly — Eatonton — 
Josiah Flournoy— Henry Branham — Jere. Norman — Stephen 
Olin — Charles Hardy — La Grange — Robert Flournoy — Con- 
ference of 1829 — Madison —James Hunter — General Re- 
view 217 



CHAPTEE IX. 

First Georgia Conference— John McVean— Legacy of Thomas 
Grant— Sunday-School Cause— George Foster Pierce— A. H. 
Mitchell— Caleb W. Key— Jno. B. Barton— Jno. C. Simmons 
—Conference 18B2 — Bishop Hedding — Delegates to the Gen- 
eral Conference — Peyton P. Smith — Myles Green — General 
Conference of 1832 — James O. Andrew made Bishop — Robert 
Emory — Death of James Bellah — Wm. Choice — Conference 
OF 1833— Death of Thomas Darley — Methodism in South-west 
Georgia — Gold Discoveries and Methodism in the Mines — 
Pay of the Preachers — Conference of 1834 — Joshua Knowles 
— First Collection for Superannuated Preachers — Cherokee 
District — Irwin — Hawkinsville — The Frontier Districts of 
THE South— VV. Graham— E. W. Reynolds— George H. Round 
— George W. Lane — Alex. Speer — Sandersville — Jno. W. 
Knight— Same. Anthony 269 



CHAPTER X. 
1836-1840. 

Two Conferences in 1836— January Conference in Macon— Jno. 
W. Glenn — Geo. A. Chappell — General Conference of 1836— 
Geo. F. Pierce Presiding Elder — Columbus Conference in 



XIV 



CONTENTS. 



December — Noble Generosity of Columbus — First Confer- 
ence Minutes published — Death of John Howard — Christian 
Advocate — Great Revival in Warrenton — Thomas A. Morris — 
The Hulston District in Upfer Georgia — Conference of 1837 — 
G; EAT Revival in La Grange — A Race-horse N^med for a 
Preacher — Work in Florida — Massacre of a Preacher's Fam- 
ily — Conference in Eatonton — Jas. R. Jackson — A. B. Long- 
street — G. L Pearce — Revival in Upson — A. Means — Wm. Crum- 
ley — Among the Tomahawks — Fort Gaines — General Confer- 
ence of 1840 — General Review 314 



Death of Blanton and Few — Jno. M. Bonnell— J. Blakely Smith 
— S. C. QuiLLiAN— Chas. R. Jewell— W. B. McHan— Joy F. 
Steagall— R. F. Jones— J. Howard Harris— Jno. H. Mash- 
burn — Benj. J. Johnson — Josiah Asken — Flaudew — Cotter — 
Cone — Reese — Howard— Marietta — Forsyth — Cedar Town- - 
Americus — Great Revivals — Increased Liberality — Florida 
Work— Gardner— Cooper— Connor— Rapid Growth— The War 
— The Three General Conferences before 1861 — Capers 
— Early— During the War— The End— General Conference of 
1866 — Division of the Conference 389 



Methodism in the Cities— Augusta— Savannah— Athens— Macon — 



CHAPTER XL 
1845-1866. 



CHAPTER XII. 



Columbus and Atlanta. 



414 



CHAPTEE XIII. 



Education— Missions— Benevolence, etc. 



497 



THE 

HISTORY OF METHODISM. 



CHAPTER I. 
1735-1737. 

John Wesley in Georgia— Charles Wesley— Benjamin Ingham — 
George Whitefield—Cornelius Winter. 

John Wesley said that the second Methodist society 
ever organized in the world was organized in Savannah, 
Georgia. 

Mr. Wesley was not doc trin ally a Methodist when 
he organized that society, but he was in a fair way to 
become so. 

We may safely say that Methodism, as far as her 
peculiar doctrines are concerned, was born in Georgia, 
for here it was that he who was to give them form, and 
to defend them and to propagate them, emerged from 
the darkness of mystical delusion, broke the shackles 
of churchly tradition, and became fully convinced of 
those truths which, as Wesleyan, have had so mighty 
an influence in the world. 

In a history of Methodism in Georgia this faQt must 



.* Wesley's Journal, and Lives of Wesley. 



16 HISTORY OF METHODISM 

• 

find plM(?e, and wliile Wesley's life in the State is not 
strictly Methodist history, yet we shall not be violating 
tlie unity of tlie story by glancing at it in this introduc- 
tory cliaptei*. 

The province of South Carolina swept from the At- 
lantic coast to the Mississippi, and although Charleston 
was near one huPxdred years old arid country settle-' 
ments had been made on the east side of the Savamiah 
for over a centuiw, all west of the river was an unbroken 
w^ild. 

The prisons and poor-houses of England were full, 
and a colony not for paupers and criminals, but for 
those who might become so without help, was decided 
upon by some philanthropic Londoners. George II. 
granted to thenn as trustees all that area of land from 
the Savannah i-iver to the Mississippi, and James 
Oglethorpe, afterwards General, was by them selected 
to plant the colony in it. 

He carne across the sea with a small body of emi- 
grants, and on the high bluffs of the Savannah, near an 
Indian village, he founded the city of Savannah. lie 
brought an Episcopal clergyman, Dr. Henry Herbert, 
with him, and soon a rough building — a kind of taber- 
nacle — was erected. The Saltzburghers who came with 
Mr. Ogletliorpe brought vvuth them also a pastor ; and 
tliese two clergymen, one a Lutheran and the otlier an 
Episcopalian, were the first in Georgia. Mr. Qiiincy 
succeeded Dr. Herbert, but he soon became dissatisfied 
and resolved to go to England, iien Mr. Oglethorpe 
decided to make a voyage to England for new emigrants, 
he was anxious to secure a minister for the parish. 

The field was a hard one. The man who undertook 
the work of tilling it needed a soul crucilied to the 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



17 



world. Mr. Oglethorpe, when he reached London, was 
told that there was a Fellow of Christ's College, Oxford, 
wlio would meet all his demands. He was John Wesley ; 
mystical — rather too much for England, too strict and 
careful in his own conduct, and too exacting in his 
demands npon others, for those times, but just the man 
to teach colonists going to the wilds, and Indians who 
had never left them, the w^ay to Heaven. Wesley had 
already refused the rectorship of his father's parish, 
but it might be that he and his gifted young brother 
would consent to go to Georgia. 

So Mr. Oglethorpe offered to John and Charles Wes- 
ley* ministerial charges in the new colony. 

John Wesley had now for six years been a Fellow of 
Christ's Church, Oxford ; and engrossed with his studies 
and striving with the ardor of an ascetic of the early 
days to satisfy the demands of an. exacting conscience, 
lie had no wish to go out into the busy world. 

But wdien Oglethorpe's appeal reached him and his 
Ijrother Charles, that he might become more thoroughly 
dead to the world, and that he might lead the Indians to 
Christ, he consented to leave England and come to 
Georgia. Benj. Ingham, Chas. Delamotte, and Charles 
Wesley came with him. The brig in which they sailed 
left Gravesend Oct. 14th, 1735, and reached Savannah 
Feb. 8th, 1736. Four months of sea travel necessarily 
makes voyagers well acquainted with each other, and 
this voyage brought Mr. Wesley in contact with some 
persons whose services to him, and through him to the 
world, have been of untold value. Among the voyagers 
were some Moravians and Saltzburghers. Of how Mr. 
Wesley became interested in them, of how they taught 
him more fnlly the way to Jesus, his biography tells. 



18 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



When lie reached Savannah, he had about come to the 
conchision that he needed to be taught the first princi- 
ples of Cln-istian faith, and by Spangenberg tiie Mora- 
vian, and by his Lutheran companions, he was taught 
what he had needed most to know — the doctrine of a 
free justiflcation by faith, and of the Spirit's witness, 
lie accepted these truths as of God, but he did not so 
soon enter into the liberty which they were designed to 
bring to him. All the while he was in America he was 
a slave in fetters. The old traditions of Ecclesiasticism, 
the vagaries of the Mystics, and the gloomy doctrines of 
Taylor and Law, under whose shadow he had lived, were 
not so easily escaped from. 

Savannah, which was his parish, was a small village, 
poorly built, and populated by a motley company. The 
]nost of its iuhabitants were English people from the 
humbler classes. There were a few Portuguese Jew^s, 
and the German colony of Saltzburghers was only twenty 
miles above. There was a colony of Scotch Highland- 
ers at the mouth of the Altamaha, and a settlement at 
Frederica, besides a few French at Llighgate, near 
Savannah. Mr. Oglethorpe had his headquarters at 
Frederica, for this was the point nearest the Spanish 
possessions in Florida, and was threatened by their 
forces, and Charles Wesley was his chaplain and seci'e- 
lary there. There were perhaps 300 white persons in the 
colony. Mr. Wesley began his work with great ardor. 
Adopting the usages of the early Church, he endeavored 
to bring his parishioners to adopt them also. On Sun- 
day morning at five he read prayers, at eleven he 
preached and adjninistered the communion ; in the 
q^ftprnoon he taught the children the catechism, and had 
thus a Sundaj^-school, one of the first, if not the first, in 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



19 



America. Then he preached to the Freiicli colony at 
Highgate in their own tongue. During the week he 
visited from house to house. He reproved and rebuked 
with all authority. He positively refused to deviate 
from the old rubrics of the Church, refusing even to 
baptize a babe unless its parents would consent to its 
being immersed. He made two or three trips to Fred- 
erica, where Charles Wesley was rector, and here his 
boldness offended his hearers. He conversed with the 
Indians, and tried unsuccessfully to get access to them. 
He gave himself to the most diligent efforts to secure 
that crucifixion to the world for which he longed, refus- 
ing to talk upon any but religious topics. The result of 
his rigid life, and not less rigid teachings, was that the 
displeasure of the parishioners became greatly aroused. 
This received additional strength frojn the exercise of 
what he believed was a righteous discipline. He had 
but eighteen communicants, and one of these he repelled 
from the communion. She had been very dear to him, 
and this only intensified the anger of her friends. 

Perhaps no act of church discipline of so slight 
importance has ever created more discussion than Mr. 
Wesley's course towards Mrs. Williamson, who had been 
Miss Sophia Hopkey. She was a sprightly and attrac- 
tive English girl, the niece of Mr. Causton, who was one 
of the leading men in the colon ; she came over in the 
ship in which Mr. Wesley came, and they were for some 
time attached friends. The relations between them 
have not been fully understood, and because of this the 
fair name of Mr. Wesley has moi-e than once been as- 
sailed, if not with open slander, yet with gross innuendo. 
He gave to Henry More the true account of all the 
relations between them and of his course in the matter 



20 HISTORY OF METHODISM 

of discipline. From More's account we are able to 
give the history. 

She was an attractive girl, whom Mr. "Wesley thought 
to be a sincere inquirer after a holy life. They were 
four months togetlier. Pie was young, gifted, hand- 
some, and with briglit worldly prospects. She was 
apparently amiable, and certainly very attractive. lie 
taught her, advised her, and a genuine affection on his 
part sprang up towards her. Love makes a scholar 
blind, but it did not blind the quiet Germans to the 
fact that she would not do for Mr. Wesley's wife. She 
evidently was not averse to marrying the young rector, 
and expected confidently that he would engage him- 
self ; but Mr. Wesley consulted liis German friends, and 
they advised against it, and he ceased his visits to her. 
This was after they reached Savannah. A Mr. Wil- 
liamson gladly took the vacated place, and soon Miss 
Tlopkey became Mrs. Williamson. 

Savannah was a gossiping village. Mrs. William- 
son was young and thoughtless ; and untrue and harsh 
things were said about Mr. Wesley, which he believed 
came from her ; and believing she was unfit to partake, 
he passed her over at the connnunion. Her uncle and 
husband and all her friends were of course angry. They 
w^ent to the courts with it. Mr. Wesley tried to get a 
trial, and when he could not, much to the j-elief of the 
colony and to his own, he took shipping for England 
after he had spent nearly two years in Georgia. His 
stay had been a painful and profitable one to himself. 
He had not hoped to find his w^oi'k a bed. of roses. He 
found it more thorny than he had expected. He hoped 
to have gone into the wilds and found the untamed 
children of the forest, and like Francis Xavier or Las 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



21 



Casas, have been their teacher and father ; but lie 
found himself pent np in a little, gossiping English 
village, filled with godless adventnrers, women not 
good, and men worse. He had never had any contact 
with men. He had lived in Avhat Avas really a clois- 
tered obscurity. His one idea was to save his sonl ; his 
one feeling was contempt for the w^orld ; but they — his 
parishoners — " their talk was of bullocks." They had 
come to Savannah to get large estates, not to go to prayers 
at five o'clock in the morning ; and to have free license, 
not to observe all the ancient forgotten rubrics of the 
Church. 

He did the best he could, and only when satisfied he 
could do the colonists no good did he resolve to return, 
as Charles had already done, from whence he came. 
The startling inquiry of Spangenberg, Ilave you 
faith in Christ? Have you the witness in yourself?'' 
still rang in his ears, and the one ruling aim of his life 
now was to repose his soul in simple trust on Jesus, 
and secure the Spirit's testimony that it was done. He 
was a servant, not a son. The good seed sowm- in Geor- 
gia in his heart did not die. The old truth, to him so 
new, now embraced with the mind, became afterwards 
the food of his heart ; and while Mr. Wesley never re- 
turned to Georgia, this truth did, and in his teachings 
he lived again where he had spent so mam^ stormy 
days. But it was a half-century after he went away 
before John Major and Thomas Humphries came to 
Georgia with this truth, to do the work he would fain 
have done. 

As the ship that bore John Wesley to London passed 
Gravesend, another, American bound, with George 
Whitefield on board, sailed for Savannah. This remark- 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



able man, who had been so attached to John Wesley and 
Iiis brother at Oxford, and had sooner found the light, 
Avas the first Methodist preacher who ever preached in 
Savannah. Methodism was a sentiment before it be- 
came an ecclesiasticism. Its central idea was j ustification 
by faith, and a consciousness of it. The experimental, 
I'ather than doctrinal, was its mark ; and though George 
Whitefield differed with John Wesley with reference to 
predestination, and was not connected with his societies, 
yet he was truly a Metiiodist Episcopalian.* 

His fervid eloquence, his evangelical preaching was 
more pleasing to the colonists than the frigid High 
Churcdiism of Mr. Wesley, and soon all the villagers — 
for Savannah had in it but 500 people— attended his 
ministry. After spending a year in his parish he decided 
to return to England for priest's orders, and to raise 
funds for an orphan house to be founded at Bethesda, 
near the city. 

For nearly thirty years he was a frequent visitor at 
Savannah, and was always gladly welcomed, and his 
influence for good remains to this day. In 1769 he 
brought with him from England a protege, Cornelius 
Winter,f who was the first m.issionary to the negroes. 
Winter had been a wild boy belonging to the lower 
order of Englishmen. He was converted under Mr. 
Whitefield's preaching, and after laboring with him as a 
kind of assistant, he was induced to come to America 
by his patron as a teacher of the Africans, wlio were 
being now introduced in numbers as slaves, to cultivate 
rice and cotton on the seaboard. Winter four.d a 
friend in James Habersham, who had come a year be- 



* Life of Whitefield. 



f Jay's Life of Cornelius Winter. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



23 



fore as Mr. Whiteiield's teacher^ but who was now a 
merchant, and was installed as catechist on the planta- 
tion of a retired Episcopal clergyman. He met with 
such poor success in his work, and found the planters so 
bitterly opposed to his preaching to the slaves, that 
after the death of Mr. Whitefield in 1770, a year after 
he had reached Savannah, he resolved to return to 
England to secure ordination. This he failed to do on 
account of his Methodism, and so he fell into the ranks 
of the Nonconformists, among whom he was a leading 
man till his death. Georgia in her infanc}^ had thus 
the ministry of John and Charles Wesley, Benj. 
Ingham, Delamotte, Whitefield, and Winter— men whose 
names are familiar to all students of church history as 
instruments in the now historic Methodist reformation. 



24 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



CHAPTER II. 

Religious History of Georgia to the Introduction of Method- 
ism — The Colonists — The Episcopal Church— The Lutherans— 
The Presbyterians — The Baptists. 

The Trustees for Georgia were many of them wealtliy 
dissenters, and for over twenty yeai-s after the settle- 
ment of the colony there was no religious establishment. 
Perfect religious freedom w^as guaran.teed, save to the 
Catholics. Jews, Presbyterians, and Lutherans were side 
by side with the Church of England men. With the 
first body of colonists came an Episcopal clei'gyman, 
who became rector of the first parish. This was Dr. 
Ilenr}^ ELerbert, who remained in Georgia only three 
months he died on his passage home, and was suc- 
ceeded by Samuel Quincy, a native of Massachusetts, wdio 
came to Savannah in May, 1733. He held service in a hut 
made of split boards, lie met with much opposition 
and hard usage, and only left the colony after John 
AVesley came. Of Wesley's iiistor}^ while here we have 
already spoken. Charles Wesley and Benj, Inghanj, 
the spiritual father of the Countess of Huntington, came 
over v>uth John Wesley, and labored at Frederica ; by 
1737 they had all returned to England. Mr. Whitefield 
came, as v/e have seen, just after Mr. Wesley left ; he 
remained two years. The church at Frederica did not 
prosper, nor did the one at Savannah. In 1755 the 
Trustees suiTcndered the colony to the Crown, and the 



* Bishop Stevens' Meiii. Serniou, p. 9. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



25 



Church of England became the established church. 
Parishes were formed ; in three of these there were 
churches : one in Savannah, one in Burke County, and 
one in Augusta. The churches outside of Savannah 
were served by missionaries sent out by the Society 
for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. 
There seems to have been no prosperity in this church, 
and there were perhaps not fifty communicants in all 
the colony. Although the Parisli of St. George in 
Burke had a church where is now Old Church, and a 
glebe attached, they could not provide for a rector, nor 
retain one. At the Revolution the field was entirely 
abandoned, and for near twenty years after its close 
we have been able to find no footprint of an Episcopal 
clergyman. Methodism had over 12,000 members in her 
fold before an Episcopal bishop ever visited Georgia. 

The Saltzburghers were a band of pious Austrians, 
who adhered to tlie doctrines of Luther, and who were 
driven from their native hills by Catholic persecution. 
Frederick William of Prussia gave them a shelter in 
Friesland, and his relative, George IL, offered them a 
home in Georgia. A colony of them came in the first 
shipload of emigrants, and found a home in what is now 
Eflingham County, some twenty miles from Savannah, 
They afterwards removed their village to a healthier 
location, and called their new town Ebenezer. They 
were a pious people, industrious and frugal, and their 
pastors men of fine intellectual culture. They spoke, 
however, only the German tongue and preserved their 
German usages, and were not aggressive. No growth 
was to be expected save from within and from emigra- 
tion. The German emigration, however, chose the rich 

valleys of Pennsylvania in preference to the pine woods 
2 



26 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



of Georgia, and the Lutherans in Georgia had grown 
but little to the period we are now reaching. They had 
one church at Ebenezer, one in Savannah, and one at 
Goshen, in 1786. The first colony of Presbyterians 
came in in 1735, and fixed their settlement at the mouth 
of the Altamaha, at a place they called New Inverness, 
which is now Darien. This colony had Pastor McLeod 
as their spiritual guide. How long they remained there, 
or whether they ever built a church, we cannot discover. 
It is probable the colony was soon broken up and the 
colonists scattered. There are a large number of High- 
land names in Lower Georgia — McLeods, MacPhersons, 
Mclntoshes, and the like, which probably owe their origin 
to these emigrants. A second body of Presbyterians 
were induced by George Galphin, a Scotch-Irishman 
and an Indian trader, to come over and settle in Jeffer- 
son County, then St. George Parish. They w^ere dis- 
senters from the Scotch Church, were Scotch-Irish peo- 
ple, who followed Mr. Erskine. The first Presbyterian 
church of which we have any authentic account was in 
Savannah, and was established in 1760. A few years 
before that, however, a colony of English Congrega- 
tionalists came over to this country, and after spending 
a short time in New England, came south to Dorchester^ 
S. C, and thence to Liberty County, in Georgia, w^iere 
they built Old Medway Church. They were people of 
some means, and had a ministry of genuine piety and 
great intelligence. Counting these with the Presby- 
terians, there were in all three Presbyterian congrega- 
tions in the State prior to 1786. In 1773 Sir Ja::ies 
"Wright made a new purchase from the Indians, and 
that fine country north and w^est of Augusta was bought. 
It was settled by emigrants from Virginia and North 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



27 



and Soiitli Carolina. Abraham Marshall, who had been 
a Congregationalist and then a Baptist, came near that 
time, and a little before him, Edmund Bottsford, another 
Baptist, from South Carolina, crossed the river into 
Burke County to preach. lie founded Bottsford Bap- 
tist Church near the same epoch that Abraham Mar- 
shall founded that of Kiokee."^ Silas Mercer came soon 
after. These three were good men and great men, and 
worked with great zeal, itinerating througli the country. 
Some of them were arrested by the Episcopal magis- 
trates and fined, but they went on in their work. In 
1784 the first association was organized, which consisted 
of six churches, three of which were in South Carolina. 

There was then in 1786 in Georgia, as far as we can 
get the facts, three Episcopal churches without rectors, 
three Lutheran churches, three Presbyterian, and three 
Baptist. We may safely say there were not 500 Chris- 
tian people in all. 

The colony now numbered 80,000 inhabitants, white 
and black. The social features of the country were 
those of all frontier settlements. In another chapter 
we have endeavored to represent them. The field was 
indeed a wide one, a hard one, and yet an inviting one. 
What Methodism had to do in chano^ino; this wild into 
a garden, we are now to see. In December, 1784, the 
Methodist Episcopal Church of America was organ- 
ized, and in the spring of 1785, the first Methodist 
preacher was sent to Georgia. 



* Campbell's Baptists. 



28 



mSTORY OF METHODISM 



CHAPTEE III. 
1786-1794. 

Methodism in America before 1785 — Beyerlet Allen — James Fos- 
ter — Thomas Humphries — John Major — Condition of the 
People— Henry Parks— Richard Ivr— Francis Asbury in Geor- 
gia—First Conference— Hope Hull First Church— Thomas 
Haynes — Conference at Grant's — James Conner — Thomas 
Grant— David Merriwether— Thomas Coke— Elbert Circuit — 
James Jenkins— Reuben Ellis— Union of the Georgia and 
South Carolina Conferences. 

The first Methodist society in America was probably 
organized by Robert Strawbridge, in Maryland, befom 
1766."^ During that year, in a sail-loft in New York, 
at the instance of a good woman, who had been a 
Methodist, Philip Embury certainly organized a society.f 
Robert Williams, in Virginia, was at work soon after, 
and then Mr. Wesley sent Mr. Rankin and Mr. Rodda 
from England to take charge of the societies. More 
laborers were needed, and when Mr, Wesley made a 
call for volunteers to come to America, Francis Asbury 
olfered himself, and in the autumn of that year sailed 
from Bristol to Philadelphia. 

The war of the revolution began and ended. All the 
English preachers, at its beginning, returned to Eng- 
land, save Francis Asbury, whose love for the American 
Methodists was stronger than his love for England. 

There were no sacraments, and there were no or- 



* Letter in Pacific Methodist. 



f Stevens' History. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



29 



dained preachers. Mr. Wesley saw somethiDg must be 
done for America, and acting in accordance with his 
views of church polity, he decided to ordain a bishop 
for these churches, and so ordained Dr. Thomas Coke, 
who was to come to Amxcrica, and set apart Mr. Francis 
Asbury for the superintendency of them. The preachers 
were summoned from their circuits, and they assembled 
in Baltimore, in December, 1784, and met at the Lovely 
Lane Meeting- House, to organize the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church of America. Mr. Asbury and Thomas 
Coke were elected to the Episcopal office, and then 
Mr. Asbury was ordained by Dr. Coke, assisted by 
Otterbien and other elders. 

Dr. Coke was to be a joint bishop with Asbury, but 
he was little more than a bishop in name, and upon 
Asbury reposed the great burden of overseeing and 
directing the efforts of the evangelists. No man could 
have been chosen better suited to the place. 

There were now 10,000 Methodists in America, 
much the largest part of them in Maryland and Vir- 
ginia. 

Asbury realized the importance of the froxitier, and 
at once sought to occupy it. The Western frontier was 
the county of Translyvania, in Yirginia, now the State 
of Kentucky. The southern was the State of Georgia. 

The first conference, after the Christmas Conference 
of 1784:, was held in North Carolina, at the house of 
Green Hill, who was a local preacher. Here Beverly 
Allen, who had been a travelling preacher for several 
years, was ordained an elder, and appointed to Georgia. 

The conference at which he was appointed included 
in it all the preachers of Yirginia and North and South 
Carolina who could be present ; yet they were accom- 



30 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



modated in one country house. Dr. Coke, with his fiery 
impetuosity, had excited great hostility to himself and 
the societies, as he passed through Virginia, by his 
vehement attack upon domestic slavery. When he 
reached North Carolina, finding that the laws of the 
State, even then, forbade emancipation, he exercised a 
prudence unusual with him, and preached simply the 
Gospel ; but the Conference, through his influence, pass- 
ed the most decided resolutions against slavery, and in- 
sisted that the Church should take earnest measures to 
secure innnediate emancipation. These resolutions ac- 
complished nothing except to throw more serious ob- 
stacles in the way of the already embarrassed preachers. 

When Paul and Barnabas went forth on their mis- 
sionary tour through slaveliolding Greece, they went 
from the Primitive Church unhampered with instruc- 
tions about slavery ; but the children were wiser than 
the fathers, and it required the experience of a few sad 
years to teach Asbury and his associates that both 
master and slave would perish if they persisted in their 
course. 

The first herald of Methodism to Georgia had a sad 
and tragic history. He began to travel in 1782 in Vir- 
ginia, and for a while travelled with Asbury,"^ preaching 
with great zeal and success. There was quite an emi- 
gration from Virginia to Wilkes County, in upper 
Georgia, after the revolution, and as his brother was 
living in that section after Allen's location, it is proba- 
ble that he had already removed there when Allen was 
appointed to the State, and that he had, besides, acquain- 
tances and friends. Allen was at this time a man of 



* Asburj's Journal. 



m GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 31 



fine personal appearance, and an interesting and zealous 
preacher, and large crowds attended his ministry. What 
was the boundary of his circuit, or where his labors 
were chiefly expended, we have no means of finding out, 
but they were probably confined to Wilkes County, 
then embracing all upper Georgia."^ He certainly accom- 
plished but little, since only seventy members were 
reported at the next Conference. He was then made 
a presiding elder for the upper part of South Carolina, 
and the next year was on the Edisto work in the lower 
pai't of the State. Here he married into one of the best 
families of the section.f He then returned to Georgia, 
and was an assistant presiding elder to Richard Ivy, and 
the next year was sent to South Carolina again, and sta- 
tioned on Edisto Island. Here he committed a flagrant 
crime, :{: and in 1792 was expelled from the connection. 
He seems now to have returned to Georgia and gone into 
mercantile business with his brother, Billy Allen. He 
became embarrassed financially, and while in Augusta 
was threatened with arrest for debt by the United States 
Marshall, Major Forsyth. He refused to submit to 
arrest, and when Major Forsyth attempted to take him 
forcibly, he killed him. He fled to Elbert, was captured 
and imprisoned. He was released by a mob of the citi- 
zens, § and fled to the wilds of Kentucky. Here he 
practised medicine, and in his house Peter Cartwright 
boarded when a boy at school. | We have no further 
authentic tidings of this gifted, but, alas ! wicked man. 
He was, as far as we can find from the minutes, the first 
apostate Methodist preacher in America. For some 



* White. 

§ White. 



t Mood. X Mood. 

11 Cartvv^right's Life. 



32 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



reason Bishop Asbury always distrusted him, and so 
expressed himself to Dr. Coke/^ He had done but little 
for Georgia his first year in it, and when the Virginia 
Conference met at Lanes, in North Carolina, Thomas 
Humphries and John Major volunteered to come to the 
State, and were appointed to succeed him.f The States 
of South Carolina and Georgia were thrown into one 
district, and James Foster was made presiding elder. 
He was a Yirginian, and had been a preacher since 
1776. He had travelled first in Yijghiia for two years, 
but excessive fasting and excessive labor in the open 
air had destroyed his constitution, and he was forced to 
locate. He removed to South Carolina, where he found 
some emi^ant Methodists, and formed a circuit arnono; 
them. He then re-entered the conference, and took 
charge of the district of South Carolina and Georgia.:]: 
This toil was too great for him. His mental as well as 
his bodily strength gave way, and he retired finally, 
after one year on the district. He spent the rest of his 
life in visiting among Methodist families, condncting 
their family devotions with much propriety, though 
unable to preach to them. He was a good preacher, 
noted for his amenity, his fine personal appearance, and 
his usefulness.§ 

Thomas Humphries, who was placed in charge of the 
Georgia work, was a Virginian. He entered the con- 
ference at Ellis Meeting-house in Vii-ginia, and after 
travelling three years in Virginia and North Carolina, 
was appointed to Georgia in connection with John Ma- 
jor ; after travelling a few years in Georgia he removed 



* Asbury 's Journal. 

X Stevens' History M. E. Church. 



t Lee's Life, p. 183. 
g Travis. 



IK GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



33 



to South Carolina, where he itinerated a short time. He 
then married a lady of wealth and position, and located in 
the bounds of the Pedee Circuit, South Carolina. Here 
he did good work as a local preacher."^ He was a fine- 
looking man, with an exceedingly bright eye, which 
sparkled and flashed when he was excited. He preached 
with great earnestness and power, and was remarkable 
for native wit and fearlessness.f 

With him to Georgia came John Major, the weeping \ 
prophet. Pie too was a Virginian, who had entered 
the conference with Thomas Humphries, Philip Bruce, 
and John Easter. He was a man of unquestionable 
piety, and in the pulpit was remarkable for his pathos 
and power. He did hard work in Georgia, and en- 
deared himself to all the people. His constitution gave 
way under the tax he laid upon it, and when Francis 
Asbur}^ came to Georgia, Major, wasted by disease and 
near his end, met him in South Carolina. The dying 
preacher was unable to get to the first conference, and 
died at the house of Pro. Plerbert, the grandfather of 
Mrs. Dr. E. H. Myers. Asbury, on his visit to Georgia 
afterwards, visited his grave to drop the tear of loving 
remembrance upon it. He says of him in the minutes : 
" John Major, a simple-hearted man, a living, loving 
soul, who died as he lived, full of faith and the Holy 
Ghost, ten years in the work, useful and blameless." :{: 

The two preachers started from conference for their 
work. They probably came at once to Wilkes County, 
where there were a few Virginia Methodists, and then 
began to explore and map out the country. They 
found the people everywhere destitute of the Woi'd. 



* Travis. f Dr. L. Pierce. i Minutes. 

2^ 



34 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



Save one or two Baptist churches organized by Abra- 
ham Marshall and Silas Mercer, there was no church of 
any name north of Augusta. In a preceding chapter 
we have given a view of the church privileges of the 
people. The western boundary of the State was the 
Oconee river, the southern the Florida line ; in all tliis 
area there were not more than seven Christian ministers. 
The settlements were upon the creeks and rivers, and 
the inhabitants were thinly settled all over the face of 
the country. The dwellings were pole-cabins in the 
country, and even in the cities were built largely of 
logs. There were no roads — only pathways and Indian 
trails. There were no houses of worship, and the mis- 
sionaries preached only in private dwellings. The work 
had all to be laid out, and for the first year it is proba- 
ble the two preachers visited together the settlements 
which were thickest, and organized societies when they 
could. From the minutes w^e conclude that they 
compassed the country from the Indian frontier on the 
north to the lower part of Burke County on the south. 
During this year 430 members were brought into the 
society, the larger number in Wilkes. Among them was 
Thomas Haynes of Uchee Creek, and Henry Parks, of 
whom we shall have more to say. 

The people among whom they labored were none of 
them rich and none of them poor. The land w^as 
good and open to all. Cattle ranged over grass-cov- 
ered woods, and hogs fattened on the mast of the forest 
trees. There was no money, and but little need for it. 
Luxury was an impossibility to men so remote from 
cities and seaports. The people were without religion, 
but they were free from many of the temptations to 
which those in more thickly-settled communities are 



m GEOHGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 35 



exposed. There was some infidelity among the upper 
classes, but perhaps none among the mass of the people. 

They were free from licentiousness, dishonesty, and 
cowardice. They drank to excess ; they fought on 
muster-days ; they gouged and bit each other ; they 
spent the Sabbath in fishing, hunting, and seeing after 
cattle ; and they were somewliat indolent, too content 
with their condition ; they had, however, the elements 
in them out of which to make good characters — strong 
sense and much nobility of soul. Humphries and 
Major found the harvest-field bending with the ripened 
grain, and they thrust in the sickle to reap abundantly. 
Among those converted we have mentioned Henry 
Parks. He was a strong, brave, energetic young man, 
who, from North Carolina, with his new wife and one 
cliild, came to Elbert County, where he was em- 
ployed to oversee a new plantation. His wife was 
Elizabeth Justice, who had been baptized in Eastern 
Virginia by that good man, Devereaux Jarratt ; she 
became early a Methodist, but her husband had never 
seen one of this sect so often spoken against. They 
lived together a little while on the banks of the Yadkin, 
in North Carolina, out of reach of her preachers, and 
then came to Georgia, in which there were few preachers 
of any kind, and no Methodists at all when they first 
reached the State. One day, the news was brought that 
two Methodist preachers would preach near them. She 
easily persuaded her husband to go and hear her minis- 
ters. He went, and for the first time heard the doctrine 
of universal atonement and possible salvation for all, 
preached by the sainted Major. He determined, if he 
could, to be saved. He was soon converted, joined the 
Methodist Church, made his house a preaching-place,; 



36 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



and afterwards, with the help of his friends, built a 
chapel. God prospered him as far as lie wished to be 
prospered in worldly matters, and blessed him with a 
large family. Of these, Wm. J. Parks was the young- 
est son. Henry Parks was a very striking character. 
His life had been calculated to make him what he was. 
In the wilds of Kentucky and of south-western Yir- 
ginia he had spent some of his early years, combating 
the liardships of the frontier and confronting the savage 
tribes of the West. Then in the army, a brave and untir- 
ing soldier, and then in the new lands of Geoi^gia, he 
w^as forced to bring into exercise ever}' manly quality ; 
and after he became a member of a despised sect of 
Christians, his courage was well added to his faith. 
His descendants are among the leading Methodists of 
Georgia, and are very numerous. Though the old 
patriarch passed away in 184:5, still his good works do 
follow him. 

The preachers had done good work during the year, 
and at the conference they were reinforced. Georgia 
was made a separate district, and Richard Ivy was sent 
as presiding elder. Circuits were now laid out. The 
Burke Circuit, including all that section south and 
south-west of Augusta, was placed in charge of Major, 
with a young man, Matthew Harris, to assist him. 
Thomas Humphries and Moses Park took charge of pJl 
the country north and north-west of Augusta. 

Of Ivy, the presiding elder, the minutes say : " He 
was from Virginia, a little man of quick and solid 
parts. He was a hol}^, self-denying Christian that 
lived to be useful. Many of the eighteen years that 
he was in the work he acted as an elder in charge of a 
district." Ware tells the following anecdote of him : 



m GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



37 



" The conduct of the English preachei^, who had been 
loyal to their king, had excited towards the Methodist 
preachers a general feeling of distrust on the part of 
the patriots. The native American preachers were all 
in full sympathy with the colonists, but often they had 
to encounter this to them painful and dangerous sus- 
picion. Some soldiers in New Jersey, where Ivy was 
preaching, had loudly threatened to arrest the next 
Methodist preacher that came along. Ivy's appoint- 
ment was near ^vhere the army in the Jerseys was in 
camp. He went to his appointment. The soldiers 
came, and the officers, walking to tlie table, crossed their 
swords upon it. The brave little man took for his text, 
' Fear not, little flock.' As he preached he spoke of 
the folly of fearing the soldiers of freedom, and throw- 
ing open his bosom, he said : ' Sirs^ I would fain show 
you my heart ; if it beats not high for liberty, may it 
cease to beat.' The soldiers were conquered, and they 
left the house, huzzaing for the Methodist parson." 
After travelliuo; in Yir2:inia and North Carolina, he 
came to Georgia, where he was made presiding elder. 
After four years' service his health gave way, and the 
needs of an invalid mother called him back to Virginia, 
where, a year after his location, he passed to his final 
reward. 

The preachers pursued their labors with great zeal. 
A wonderful success attended them, and at the end of 
the year there were over 1,100 members in the society. 
The church had tripled its membership in one year. 

The next conference was held at Charleston. Dr. 
Coke was present with Asbury. Coke records his joy 
at the success of the work in Georgia as well as in 
South Cai'olina. 



38 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



This success was great, but not to be wondered at. 
The colliers of Kiiigswood were not more destitute of 
the Gospel than the pioneers of Georgia. Ivy, Major, 
and Humphries were no common men. Thej belonged 
to a peculiar and hitherto unknown sect, and men 
heard for the first time the doctrines of a universal 
atonement and the Spirit's witness. They came in 
crowds to hear the preachers; and Humphries with 
fiery appeals, and Major with tender entreaty, pre- 
sented the broad invitations of the Gospel. Then, too, 
the preachers went everywhere. Wherever there was a 
settlement, and a private house could be secured as a 
preaching-place, there they were. 

During this year Humphries must have preached 
in Augusta, and perhaps in Savannah, but all that 
was accomplished was in the rural settlements. The 
Washington Circuit was much the largest. It included 
all that section of north-eastern and eastern Georgia 
above Augusta. It was peopled by a sterling class of 
settlers, and among them there were some Virginia 
Methodists. The Baptists were already there, and so 
perhaps were a few Presbyterians. In the lower part 
of the work, Jefferson, Scriven, and Burke, the i3eople 
were older settlers and were possessed of larger es- 
tates. The prominent families were either adherents 
to the Episcopal Church and were without any pas- 
toral care, or were Presbyterians. In the east of the 
country were some Baptists, but among them there 
were many who had no religious privileges, and Method- 
ism was not without her blessing to them and to all. 

The interest was now sufiicient to call for the visits 
of a Bishop, and in April of 1788 Francis Asbury 
visited Georo;ia for the first time. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



39 



Francis Asbury, to -whom the Methodists of Georgia 
are more indebted than any man living or dead for 
what they are, was an Englishman. He was born in 
Birmingham, England, in April of 1745. He was con- 
verted when a boy, and began to preach before he w^as 
seventeen years old. He was a travelling preacher in 
the English connection before he was twenty-two ; he 
travelled for three years in England, and in 1771 vol- 
unteered to come as missionary to America. For five 
years before the Revolution began he spent his time as 
preacher in charge and as superintendent in New York, 
Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. The English 
preachers, although they deplored the course of the 
mother country as well as that of the colonies, were 
loyalists, and as soon as the war was fully upon the 
country returned to England, all but Mr. Asbury. He 
would not leave his post, and endeavored to avoid cen- 
sure by preserving a strict neutrality. He became an 
object of suspicion to the patriots in Maryland, and 
retired to Delaware, where, with Judge White, he re- 
mained in such retirement as was needful, working, 
however, all he could, and before the war ended he was 
as far south as North Carolina. 

We have already marked the fact that Mr. Wesley 
appointed him superintendent of the American societies, 
and sent Dr. Coke to ordain him. Mr. Asbury, whose 
views of church government were not entirely at one 
with Mr. Wesley's, refused to be ordained unless he was 
elected by his peers. This was done unanimously, and 
he was made a superintending Bishop by the laying 
on of the hands of the Presbytery. He now began his 
episcopal work. Thirty years afterwards he ceased from 
it to die. He had been a Bishop but little over three 



40 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



years when he came to Georgia to hold the first Georgia 
Conference. 

At tliis time he was forty-three years old. He was 
of medium stature, rather low, of delicate frame. His 
eye was bright and clear ; his hair lay smoothly on his 
forehead, and was even then sprinkled with gray. In 
manner he was grave and dignified. His voice was 
firm and commanding. He was gentle as a woman at 
the fireside or with his brethren, but he was as inflexible 
as grpaiite where principle was involved. 

Censure reached his very quick, for he was peculiarly 
sensitive; but he never allowed it to change his course. 
He never spared himself nor those beloved. The work — = 
the Master's work — was all to him. He led ; he said fol- 
low, not go ; and the foremost soldier found his brave 
general at his side. His story is the stoiy of a hero. 
In no annals is there to be found the tale of greater 
devotion to Christ and humanity, than in the story of 
Francis Asbury's life and labors. 

The conference which he had appointed was to be 
held in the forks of Broad River, then in Wilkes, now 
Elbert County, probably at the home of David Merri- 
wether, who lived there, and who joined the church 
during the year. Leaving Charleston on the fourteenth 
of March, in company with Isaac Smith, he made his 
way up the Saluda and to the Broad River Quai'terly 
Meeting in South Carolina. Here he met Mason; and 
here too w^as Major, who had come to meet him. Con- 
sumption was wearing this saintly man into his grave ; 
bnt he was well enough to speak after Asbury had 
preached. After being benighted and lost the next night, 
they crossed tlie Sa\'annah, and in the forks of Broad 
River, near where old Petersburg was, the next day the 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. U 

conference assembled. There were ten members pi-es- 
ent — six members of the conference and four probation- 
ers. The good Major was not able to meet with his 
brethren ; on his way to conference he sank, and near 
the time it ended its session lie went to rest. 

Who were the members of this conference ? Kichard 
Ivy, Thomas TInmphries, Moses Park, Hope Hnll, 
James Connor, Bennett Maxey, Isaac Smith, and Reu- 
ben Ellis were certainly of them. Who was the tenth ? 
Probably Mason from the adjoining circuit in South 
Carolina. Of these only six were to remain in Georgia. 
Three or four of them were but boys ; the rest unmarried 
men of mature years. They had a prospect before 
them at which any heart save the Christian's might 
well quail. They were to travel through the wilds of a 
frontier, to sv/im creeks and rivers, to sleep in smoky 
cabins, to preach every day to many or few. They 
had no hope of receiving more than £24 Continental 
money for support, and it would have been a wild hope 
to have expected that. They had the prospect of saving 
souls, and what were rags and penury in comparison to 
that? 

They received their appointments, and the Bishop 
and visiting preachers bade farewell to the picket- 
guards, who were to hold the frontier, and they were 
left alone. One among them, however, we shall see 
often in the course of this history. A man he is who is 
to make his mark in Georgia, who is to exert an 
influence in Church and State such as few men have 
exerted. This was Hope Hull — if not the father of 
Georgia Methodism, yet the man who was to be second 
to no other in fostering it. 

He was born in Worcester County, Md., in 1763, 



42 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



and at the first conference held after the organization 
of the Church, he was admitted. He was at that time a 
young house carpenter of Baltimore. 

He was a man of large frame, w^ith a broad forehead, 
a clear blue eye, heavy overhanging eye])rows, and one 
whose expression of face indicated a decided character. 
0£ the large class admitted, he was destined to the 
highest distinction and the greatest nsef ulness. From 
that conference he went forth as assistant to Joshua 
Hartley on Salisbury Circuit, in North Carolina. The 
Salisbury Circuit was a large and important one, which 
had been travelled the year before by Jesse Lee and 
Isaac Smith. The next year he was placed in charge 
on the Amelia Circuit, Virginia ; but before the end 
of the year, perhaps in its beginning, he was sent 
to the Pedee Circuit, South Carolina, wdiere, in con- 
nection with Jeremiah Mastin, he was eno^ao^ed in 
a most wonderful revival, and gathered into the 
societies 823 members, and had twenty-two preach- 
ing-houses built."^^ His great ability and his remark- 
able success made him the valued aid of the Bishop ; 
and now that his old presiding elder, Richard Ivy, was 
in Georgia, he came with Asbury, and was appointed 
to the Washington Circuit. He was called the Broad 
Axe Preacher, because of the }X)wer of his ministry. 
His stvle was awakenino- and inv^tuio;. He dealt in 
no broad generalities, but portrayed the heart with a 
precision that astonished his hearers. He told them 
what they thought, liow they felt, and what they did, 
with such wonderful exactness, that many thought he 
had learned of them from those who knew them. He 



* Dr. Coke. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



43 



was very earnest and full of unction. His voice was 
clear as a clarion and of immense power, and he sang 
with great sweetness. The anathemas of the law were 
followed by him with the sweet comforts of the Gospel. 
With James Connor to assist him, he was sent on the 
Washington Circuit. Petersburg, in Elbert, was the 
largest town north of Augusta, and was in his circuit. 
Washington was a small village in a very prosperous and 
growing country. 

The country, embracing more than a half-dozen of 
the at present counties of Georgia, is still one of the 
most desirable in the State. At this time it was just 
being settled, and was one of great loveliness. The 
grand groves of oak and hickory had not been felled 
save in occasional spots. The annual fires of the Indian 
had kept down all undergrowth, and the demands of 
the stock-raiser had still called for those annual burn- 
ings ; so that grass and flowers and flowering shrubs 
covered the surface of the earth with a vesture equal 
to that of a regal park. Herds of deer and flocks of 
turkeys were still on hill-top and covert. The settlers 
had for only a few years peopled these delightful hills, 
and had only robbed them of their wildness. They 
were many of them from among the best people of North 
Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland. As yet, cotton-plant- / 
ing was not engaged in extensively;, and while there \ 
were a few slaves, none of the unpleasing features of 
slavery were in view. The slave lived in almost as good 
a house as his master, dressed in the same homespun 
garb, worked with him in the same field, went with 
him to the same meeting, sat with him in the same 



* Dr. L. Pierce, in Sprague. 



44 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



class^ and at communion knelt at the same board. 
There were a few families who occupied high positions 
in other States, who had come to Georgia, not because 
they were poor, but in order that their descendants might 
become rich. They identified themselves with Method- 
ism in many instances. 

There were as yet no artificial distinctions in society. 
The aristocrats of the older States, Georgia did not have 
in her territory. There were no Patroons, Baronets, 
Caciques, or Landgraves, Among such a people there 
was promise of a rich harvest for Methodism, and it 
was won. David Merriwether, Thomas Grant, Henry 
Pope, John Crutchfleld, Samuel Rembert, and others 
w^ho would have blessed any church, Avere received in 
the societies in these early days. The Pichmond 
Circuit was served this year by Matthew Harris, and 
included Richmond, Columbia, Lincoln and Warren, and 
probably the country as far west as Hancock. The 
Burke probably included all Burke, Jefferson, Wash- 
ington, Scriven, and Effingham Counties. This was the 
older section of the State, and Moses Park and Bennett 
Maxey did grand work in it. There was still growth, 
and the membership was largely increased during the 
3^ear. There was reported at the conference 1,629 
against 1,100 of the year before. 

The second conference in Georgia was held in 1789, 
at Grant's meeting-house, in Wilkes County. This was 
the first completed church building among the Metho- 
dists in Georgia. It was located not far from Wash- 
ington, in the neigborhood of Thomas Grant. Bishop 
Asbury left Charleston late in February, and crossing 
the Savannah River at Beech Island, reached Augusta 
on the third of March ; and riding directly through, he 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-181^5. 



45 



came to tlie home o£ Thomas Ilayiies, on Uchee Creek, 
in now Columbia County. Thomas ITaynes was a Vir- 
ginian, who had been much amiojed by these stirring 
evangelists, who had set Mecklenburg and Brunswick 
Counties in a blaze. That he might get rid of these 
troublesome fellows w^as one of the inducements to 
move to the wilds of Georgia. He settled on the good 
lands of Uchee Creek. His cabin was soon built, and, 
away from churches and religious influence, he became, 
he said, a ringleader in wickedness. One day, not long 
after he was comfortably located, he saw a man in the 
unmistakable uniform of a Methodist preacher riding 
up to his gate. His wife was a Methodist. He called 
to her and said : " Well, wife, I left Yirginny to get 
rid of these fellows — your preachers, but my cabin is 
scarcely built before here is one of them again." His 
old Virginia hospitality and fraternal feeling for one of 
the same heather w^as too much for his prejudice, and 
so Thomas Humphries found a welcome, and Thomas 
Haynes was soon converted. He was born for a leader, 
and he became the ruling spirit in his neighborhood. 
Here at his house Asbury made an annual halt on his 
rapid journeys. Coke, Lorenzo Dow, McKendree, made 
their homes with him. He had a church near by, and he 
was a true overseer of the flock. His word was generally 
lav/. His pecidiarities were striking. Blunt, positive, 
determined, men knew what to do when he spoke out. 
There was a good local preacher near by who preached 
an insufferable time. He could not stop. One day the 
circuit preacher was expected, and for some reason did 
not come. The preaching hour w\as twelve, and as it was 
long after time, the people made ready to go home. 
Brother A. suggested that they should have a sermon — • 



46 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



he would preach ; the people demurred. It was too late ; 
he would preach too long. Brother A. said no, he 
would only preach half an hour. Uncle Tommy, or the 
Squire, as men called him, said they must stay and hear 
him the half-hour. They consented, but, alas ! when 
Brother A. reached his limit of time, he had just begun 
to reach the first of his sermon. 

" Time's out, brother," said the old squire, and taking 
up his hat he left the house, and the congregation fol- 
lowed him."^ 

He raised a large family, and few families have been 
more distinguished for intelligence and piety. One of 
his sons was a member of Congress and preserved his 
Christian character in politics ; another was a distin- 
guished physician, and his grandchildren are now among 
the most respectable people in Georgia and Alabama. 

At his house Mr. Asbury stopped for the first time 
this March day, in 1789, and rode thence to Thomas 
Grant. Here the second conference in Georgia held 
its session. Among other things before the conference, 
the question of establishing a school was the leading 
one. It was decided to buy 500 acres of land, which 
could be bought at that time for £1 Continental money 
per acre, and a subscription was to be raised for the 
buildings, to be paid in cattle, rice, indigo, or tobacco. 
We can see in this movement the far-seeing wisdom of 
the young Marylander, who had just entered fully into 
the Georgia work. The Bishop remained in Georgia 
only a week, and returned to Charleston. It was on his 
return from this weary journey that he received the 
famous letter from Mr. Wesley, so carefully preserved 



*MSS.— From Miss Kate Thwent, his granddaughter. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



47 



and so frequently published by our Episcopal friends, 
in which the mistaken old man complains of his dear 
Franky for allowing himself to be called a Bishop, and 
for founding a college and not a school, in Maryland, and 
allowing it to be named for himself and Dr. Coke. 
Poor Asbury ! — an exile from England, riding, sick and 
weary as he was, five thousand miles a year, poorly clad, 
worse paid, with a single eye for the glory of God, to be 
charged by his dearest friend with worldliness ! It was 
too painful, and he received it, as well he might, as a 
bitter pill. " No man," said Mr. Wesley, " should call 
him Bishop but he had called himself a genuine Ejpis- 
cojpos^ and had acted in character. It was indeed a cruel 
misjudgment of Asbury, and a harsh and uncalled-for 
rebuke. 

Richard Ivy is again on the district, and as Beverly 
Allen has returned to Georgia, he is associated with him 
as an assistant elder, a kind of roving evangelist. 

James Connor, who had been on the Washington 
Circuit, was sent to Augusta to organize a church there. 
If he went, he did not stay long, and six months after 
he was dead. He was from Virginia, had entered the 
conference in 1788, and had travelled only two years. 
He was a man of solid understanding, was industrious and 
improving. He promised great usefulness to the church, 
but in the midst of his usefulness he died. He was 
blessed, say the minutes, with confidence in his last hour. 

Moses Park was on the Washington Circuit with 
Wyatt Andrews. Andrews travelled one year in Geor- 
gia, and went thence to South Carc>lina — and to heaven, 
for he died the next year, full of faith and the Holy 
Ghost, praising God to the last. Hull went this year 
to the Burke Circuit. There was a great revival in it, 



h ' 

48 HISTORY OF METHODISM 



and it more than trebled its membership. Hull writes 
to John Andrew in November of this year : " Oh. the 
sweet views I have had lately ! Come on, my partners 
in distress ! Glory to God ! Amen ! Let it go round, 
onr Jesus is crowned ! All hail ! Glory ! Amen! All's 
well, my soul is happy ! If I had some happy Chris- 
tians, I could shout a mile high." 

The Conference of 1790 convened at Grant's ao-ain, 
but the Bishop made a more extensive journey through 
the State. He crossed the Savannah, at Augusta, and 
rode to S. C. Church, in Richmond County. This, 
then, was the first church in Richmond — but where 
was it? From the route Asbury took, he passed 
through Brothersville, near which is a church built 
some twenty years ago, called Clark's Chapel, after old 
father Samuel Clark. The initials lead us to suppose 
that the church was named for an older Samuel Clark, 
and was located between Brothersville and Coke's 
Chapel, in Burke County. From here he went to Briar 
Creek. On a beautiful bluff, near the great Briar 
Creek Swamp, stood for many years a church. The 
lands around it were rich, and the population consider- 
able ; but, with the growth of the plantations and the 
exode of the white people, it gradually declined in im- 
portance, and was finally given up to the negroes. 
This was probably the first Methodist church in Burke 
County. The first church in the county was the old 
St. George Episcopal Church, which, with its glebe of 
forty acres, was located six miles south of Waynesboro. 
After the Revolution it was abandoned by the Episco- 
palians, and, reverting to the Government, it became, 
finally, the property of the Methodists. These were, as 
far as we can discover, the only church buildings in 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



49 



Burke. The population of the county was cousidei'a- 
ble, since we find, in an old document protestinc^ against 
the rebellion of the colony, the names of over 100 fam- 
ilies from Burke alone. 

In company with Hull, he went across the county to 
Jefferson County, where George Galphin, the great 
Indian trader, had a trading-place. This was near 
Louisville. He passed up the Ogeechee River, and 
preached near Fenn's Bridge, and still up the Ogeechee 
to its fork ; here he examined some land for the 
school. He was ixt II^s / where was this? It is evi- 
dently in Warren County, and not many miles from the 
present home of Bishop Pierce, in Hancock. The pur- 
chase does not seem to have been made. 

Asbury says there was an abundance of provisions, 
both for man and beast, but the houses were gener- 
ally pole cabins, and the rides were long and weari- 
some. 

The conference met at Grant's again, and if all its 
members were present, there wei-e ten in all. Among 
them was Bennett Maxey, a Virginian, who, after several 
years of hard service in Georgia, returned to Virginia, 
where he extended, says Bennett, his labors far into the 
present century. He was placed in charge of the 
Richmond Circuit. John Andrew, another present, was 
the father of James O. Andrew. He was originally 
from Liberty County, and lived in the famous Med way 
settlement. He received much kindness from Mr. 
Osgood, the good pastor of the church there, and after 
the birth of his son, he named him James Osgood, in 
his honor. He entered the conference in 1790, and was 
the first native Georgian ever admitted into the travel- 
linsr connection. He was a man of more than usual 



50 



fflSTORY OF METHODISM 



education for those times. After his marriage, which 
was to Mary Cosby, of one of the best families in 
Wilkes, he located and engaged in mercantile busi- 
ness. He was unfortunate in trade, and became in- 
volved. Church discipline was stern, and often pitiless 
in those days, and the high-spirited old pioneer Avas 
wounded in the house of his friends, and withdrew from 
the church, only to return to it after his son's elevation 
to the highest ofiice in its gift. His life was a pure one, 
and his death one of triumph. He died in Elbert 
County nearly forty years after this time. 

The harvest truly was great and the laborers were 
few. Of all who travelled in Georgia, Hope Hull was 
the only elder. The strong men are nearly all gone. 
Major was dead. Humphries had removed finally to 
South Carolhia. Beverly Allen had left the State to 
return to it a disgraced and ruined man. 

The only workers were young men, inexperienced and 
uncultivated. The results of this sad condition of things 
will be seen in the future. 

This conference was held at Grant's. This was in 
Wilkes County. The Grant here spoken of was the 
father of Thomas Grantj who was for so long a time a: 
prominent layman in Georgia. 

In Hanover County, Yirgiina, in the middle of the 
last century, there was a sad state of religion. The only 
pastors were a set of parish priests whose profligate 
lives even went beyond that of the English clergy at 
that time. Among the leading citizens of that county 
was an Episcopalian named Morris. He became inter- 
ested about his soul, and was converted througli the 
reading of an old copy of Luther's sermons. He ir.vi- 
ted his neio:hbors to come and hear the sermons. Thev 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



51 



came in such numbers that a house for tlieir accommo- 
dation was needful, aud he built one. In other parts of 
the county there came requests for him to come and read 
sennons. The same result followed, and Morris's read- 
iug-houses were in several parts of Hanover. They met 
on Sunday, and, without siuging or prayer, a sermon was 
read. A Mr. Kobinson, of New Jersey, a Presbyterian, 
])assiug through Hanover, remained one Sunday at 
Morris's and observed the strange worship. He preached 
to the people. They insisted he should stay longer as 
he returned from Charleston. He did so; there was a 
revival, and he organized a Presbyterian church. When 
he prepared for his departure they insisted on giving 
him some money; he refused to take it. They put the 
money in his saddle bags. He consented to take it for 
the use of a youno; man then at the Los? OoUea'e in New 
Jei'sey, and promised to send him, as soon as he was 
through college, to Yirginia. This man was Samuel 
Davies, one of the most eloquent preachers America has 
ever produced. Grant was a member of his church, and 
Thomas Grant was baptized by him. The Grants 
removed to North Carolina, and the elder Grant was 
an elder in the Presbyterian church there. In 1784 
they removed to Wilkes Count3^ In the county there 
was no preaching save an occasional sermon from Silas 
Mercer, at a private house. At last John Major and 
Thomas Humphries came. Grant heard them and invi- 
ted them to take his house into the circuit. They did 
so, and he and his wife soon, as the phrase was, joined 
in society. Thomas was then a married man. He had 
been a revolutionary soldier and a surveyor of western 
lands. His father's teachings had not been lost, and he 
had preserved a pure life. He was an earnest seeker, 



52 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



but was not converted for some time. After he heard 
the Methodists, many of the difficulties which had been 
in the way of his happy conversion w^ere removed. He 
gave up his Calvinism and soon after joined in society 
with his wife. He was then living with his father, and 
was a well-to-do farmer. The Grants soon built a 
church, the first in Georgia ; but before the church was 
built the conference met at their house. The second in 
Georgia was held there. In 1791 he entered into mer- 
cantile business. He carried tobacco and other farm 
products to Savannah and exchanged them for West 
India produce. His business prospered and he began 
to enlarge it. He shipped his produce direct from Sa- 
vannah to Liverpool. In 1803 he went to New York. 
The journey was three months and three days long. 
When he was in New York he found a pious Quaker 
who kept a boarding-house, and made his home with 
him. He sought out the only society of Methodists in 
New York, then meeting in John Street, and had sweet 
Christian intercourse with them. In one of his visits he 
found that they were just completing a meeting-house 
which cost the immense sum of $11,000. God greatly 
prospered him in his business, but he was not injured 
by it. 

He was a true friend to the itinerant preacher, and 
kept a room in his house known as the Prophet^ s Cham- 
ber ; in a bureau drawer he kept clothing already made, 
fitted for short men, long men, fat men, and lean men, so 
that any preacher who reached his house cold and wet 
could change his apparel. After the opening of the new 
country east of the Ocmulgee, he established a store in 
Randolph, now Jasper County, and after his first wife's 
death and his second marriage, he removed to Monti- 



m GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



53 



cello. Here lie was very active in church work, and 
bemoaned the sadly dead state of tlie Church. In 1827 
the revival fire which burned all over the State reached 
Monticello and the cominunitj^ was greatly blessed. 
He had now almost retired from the world and was wait- 
ibq; for his change. He made his will, and left a hand- 
some legacy to the Church. This bequest was divided 
between the South Carolina and Georgia Conferences, 
after his death. The share of the Georgia Conference 
was $1,500 and sundry lots of land. 

Few laymen in Georgia were more cultivated, liberal 
and pious than Thomas Grant. He was of that small 
group in Wilkes who gave all their influence and much 
of their wealth to assist a struggling church. He died 
in great peace in 1828, and Dr. Lovick Pierce preached 
his funeral discourse. 

David Merri wether^ was a Welshman in his ances- 
try. His family had been a leading and wealthy one in 
Virginia, and when George Mathews, afterwards Gov- 
ernor, purchased largely of Georgia lands and removed 
to Georgia, David Merri wether came with him. He 
became a Methodist in 1787, and a conference was held 
at his house more than once. He had been a leading 
man in the State, and he became one in the Church. He 
was connected by marriage with Hope Hull and John 
Andrew, and although he was in public life. President 
of the Senate, and United States Commissioner, when 
the Methodists w^ere very humble, and although he had 
large wealth when the Methodists were very poor, he was 
always a bold, simple-hearted member of the Church. 
He removed to Athens, and was one of the first members 



* Gilmer's Georgians. 



o4 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



of the Society there, and died peaceful after reaching a 
good old age. He left a family, who have preserved 
and transmitted his virtues and his Methodism. 

Philip Mathews had ah*eady travelled one year, and 
was now w^ith John Crawford on the Savannah Circuit. 
He travelled but a few years longer. After having 
been stationed in Georgetown, S. C, he withdrew 
from the Methodist Episcopal, and joined the more 
recently organized Protestant Episcopal Church. Mr. 
Asbury mentions in his journal that a friend in Scriven 
County showed him a letter from Mr. Mathews — evident- 
ly Philip Mathews — in which he said Mr. Wesley was 
convinced of Asbury's iniquity. Tliis iniquity was 
probably a failure to recognize the merits of Hammett 
and Matliews. Mathews settled in Georgetown, S. 
C, and Travis makes this mention of him: ''An 
Episcopal clergyman, Philip Mathews, once a Meth- 
odist preacher, attended one of my prayer-meetings. 
We had a gracious time. Several lay prostrate on the 
floor, speechless and apparently lifeless. The parson 
went about, feeling first the pulse of one and then of 
another; finall}^ he came to me and said, 'Mr. Ti-avis, I 
Avant you to pray for me.' ' Well,' I said, ' kneel down 
here, and I will pray for you.' ' Oh,' said he, ' I want you 
to do it privately.' We know nothing more of his his- 
tory. The Savannah Circuit probably included the 
counties of Scriven, Effingham, Chatham, Biwan, 
Bullock, and Liberty. 

Hope Hull was appointed to Savann-ah Town. Of 
his stay there we have given a full account in our chap- 
ter on Methodism in the cities. This was a sad year 
and the beginning of sadder ones. There was decliiie 
everywhere. The zealous young preachers were neither 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



55 



old enough, nor strong enough, for the burden. The 
religious reaction had begun, and it continued for near- 
ly ten years. Hull had been unwisely taken from the 
field in which he was reaping so grand a harvest, and 
sent w^liere there was no hope of accomplishing any- 
thing. No w^onder he writes to John Andrews : " My 
soul has been among lions." Then, too, the storm of 
controversy was raging. The Baptists and Presbyte- 
rians were Calvinists, and they had strong men to de- 
fend their views. The Methodists w^ere Arminians; 
and Pelagian and Unitarian are not now names more 
odious to Evangelical Christians, than Arminian was 
in the last century. There was, on the side of the Cal- 
nnists, Marshall, Bottsford, Mercer, Father Cummings, 
and others who were strong men, and the Methodist 
preachers were young and perhaps not fully equipped 
for the battle. Asbury found the controversy raging 
and deprecated it. He thought we had better work to 
do. He came on his annual visit in the spring of this 
year. He rode through the Savannah swamp to a 
Brother H.'s probablj^ in Scriven County, and after 
preaching to a congregation of four hundred, went thence 
to Old Churcli, and thence to Waynesboro. He met 
here an intelligent and hospitable Jew, named Henry, 
who took him home with him, and with whom he read 
Hebrew till a late hour. While here he heard heavy 
tidi]igs, probably of Beverly Allen's fall in South Caro- 
lina, w^hich depressed him much ; but he left all with the 
Lord, and joining Bishop Coke, they went together to 
the seat T)f the conference. It was at Scott's. Scott's 
j was a new meeting-house in Wilkes County, not very 
I far from Merriwether's and Grant's, in the same 
section. 



56 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



This was the first visit of Bishop Coke to Georgia. 
He was a Welshman by birth, well-born, well-bred, 
aiicl well-educated ; for a while he was a skeptic, then 
he was an unconverted curate convinced of the truth of 
Christianity, but by no means a Christian ; then he was 
a warm-hearted Gospel preacher, and because he was 
so, he lost his curacy. He attached himself to Mr. 
Wesley, who valued him highly, and as w^e have seen, 
Mr. Wesley sent him to America. He was very 
decided, and almost rash in his character — one who did 
not understand America, or the Americans — one whose 
restless spirit forbade his being confined in any single 
field. He loved America, but he did not suit it, and 
the American preachers soon found that his absence 
from America was a greater blessing than his presence, 
and he spent his last active year in a woi'k which lie 
did suit, the great mission w^ork of the Wesleyan 
Church. Few men have spared themselves less, and 
few men have ever lived whose souls were nobler than 
that of Thomas Coke. 

We found, says Asbury at conference, that the 
peace with the Indians, and the prosperous trade with 
them which followed the new settlements in Greene, 
and Hancock, and Clark, the buying of slaves, had so 
engrossed the mind of the people that the preachers 
had not had the success they hoped for. Despite an 
increase of the Savannah River Circuit, there was a 
decrease of near ^00 members in the State. Rich- 
ard Ivy took the district again, and John Andrew 
and Hardy Herbert the Washington Circuit. Hope 
Hull has Burke once more. Among the new laborers 
introduced into the field was Hardy Herbert. He was 
quite a young man from North Carolina, one who lias 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-^865. 



57 



been pious from his childhood. He travelled one year 
with the saintly Isaac Smith, and another with Thomas 
Humphries, and now Bishop Asbury brought him to 
Georgia and placed him with Andrew on the Washing- 
ton Circuit. Hull writes to Andrew : " Take care of 
dear brother Herbert, for my sake, for Clirist'S sake, 
and for his own sake." He seems to have been exceed- 
ingly lovable and highly gifted. The next year 
Bishop Asbury took him with him to Virginia, and 
stationed him in Winchester. His strength gave way, 
and he located, married, and died in jSTorfolk, Ya., 
when he was but twenty-five years old 

In the spring of 1792, Asbury came once more, 
entering Georgia from Barnwell District into Scriven 
County, and thence through Burke County northward. 
He passed through Waynesboro, and attempted to 
preach. Pie left the village in no good humor with it, 
saying: "Let preachers or people catch me here till 
things are mended and bettered." The next day, Sun- 
day, he spent in prayer, burdened with the Aveiglit of 
the Church. The preachers were leaving the field. 
He rode on up the country to White Oak, in Columbia 
County. The weather was cold, the houses were open, 
and from seven o'clock in the morning until seven 
o'clock in the evening he was forced to ride before he 
could break his fast. The home in which he was 
housed was not comfortable, nor were the people reli- 
gious. He simply says, " I have had my trials this even- 
ing." The snow fell the next day, but he rode on to 
Washington, where conference met. Bishop Asbury 
in his journal states that the conference met in Wash- 
ington. There was no church in Washington for nearly 
forty years after this, of which w^e can find any men- 



5^ 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



tion, and the conference must have been lield in the 
neighborhood, at Coke's Chapel, as tlie next year the 
Bishop preached for the first time in Washington. 
There was, he says, great sifting, and one member of 
the body was suspended."^ The ah^eady depleted ranks 
lost two of its best laborers, for Hope Hull w^ent with 
the Bishop as his travelling companion, and Hardy 
Herbert went to take an appointment in Virginia. Ivy 
is for the fourth and last year on the district. Jonathan 
Jackson came to Georgia and took the place of John 
Andrew, while Andrew located, to return to the work 
no more. Jackson was from North Carolina. He was, 
says Mood, a very son of thunder, dealing out the 
terrors of the Law until the wicked would almost flee 
fi'om the house. He remained in Georgia only one 
year, then returned to South Carolina, and thence to 
Virginia, where he travelled a district reaching far 
beyond the Alleghanies. He came again to South 
Carolina, where he was honorably located. Travis, 
who knew him well, says that while his preaching 
talents were not brilliant, his sermons were ahvays 
calculated to do good. He was a man of great holiness, 
and when the Lord came he found his lamp trimmed 
and burning. f 

George Clark took his first appointment this year. 
He travelled three circuits in Georgia and then located. 
He was the first preacher on the banks of the St. Mary's. 
After his location he lived in Union District, South 
Carolina. He was a man of considerable wealth, but one 
of great plainness of dress and manner. His goodness 
was unquestioned, and he did much for the Church. He 



* See Journal. 



f Methodism in Charleston. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



59 



lived to an advanced ao;e. Two new circuits were 
formed, the Elbert and the Oconee. The Oconee was 
served by John Clark. " This," saj^s James Jenkins, 
who travelled it the next year, " was a two weeks' cir- 
cuit, extending from the Sweet Water iron-works, in 
Warren County, to the banks of the Oconee, then the 
frontier." The lower part of Greene, all of Hancock, 
and a part of Washington and Warren, must have been 
included in it. The next year there was one meeting- 
Iiouse, mentioned by Jenkins, Jackson's Meeting-House, 
but this year the work was just laid out. Hancock 
County had not, as yet, been separated from Greene and 
Washington, and Clark's work was in these counties. 
The country was a fertile one, but the fact that the 
Indians were just across the river made it a perilous 
one to travel in. There was peace then, but no man 
knew how long it w^ould continue. The Elbert Circuit 
was separated from that of Wilkes, and contained 186 
members. This county had been laid out from Wilkes 
two years before, and it was one of the most thickly 
populated in the State. This then was the state of the 
w^ork up to the Conference of 1773, when Georgia was 
connected with South Carolina in one conference. The 
conference met in Washington again, Bishop Asbury 
having crossed the river at Augusta, and riding directly 
to Haynes, and thence to Washington. The brethren 
decided to unite the two conferences, and after a session 
of great love, they ended the sitting. He returned to 
South Carolina, by turning his course from Haynes, by 
Buckhead in Burke, on to Savannah. He visited 
Ebenezer and the Orphan House of Whitefield, and 
preached in Savannah. This city then had about 500 
houses of all sorts^ and he supposed about 2^000 inhabit- 



60 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



ants. There was a Lutheran church in it and a Presby- 
terian. The Goshen Church, in Effingham, was offered 
to Asbury by Mr. Bergman, the pastor at Ebenezer, on 
condition that he would have the pulpit supplied once 
in two or three weeks, on Sunday. This session of the 
Georgia Conference was the last held for nearly forty 
years. 

James Jenkins came this year to the Oconee Circuit. 
He was in the second year of his ministry and was now 
twenty-eight years old. He lived for many years after 
this, and continued in the local and travelling ministry 
all the days of his life. He was a stern man, who be 
lieved the world needed more rebuke than comfort ; 
one who was possessed of great fearlessness and a most 
unbending will, and who allowed nothing to cause him 
to swerve from what he believed was the true path, 
and who demanded the same steadiness of others. Sub- 
ject to great depression, assailed by fierce temptation, 
neither his words nor his manner indicated that he 
basked in sunlight. He was the bold denouncer of sin, 
and most earnestly proclaimed what he believed to be 
the penalties of a life of sin. His history properly 
belongs to South Carolina, and a fall sketch of him will 
be a graphic chapter in that history. We can, howevei*, 
take the liberty to tell again the story so touchingly told 
by Bishop Capers, in his autobiography, of his first en- 
counter with him. He was at Jenkins's house his first 
year, in 1809. 

" Well, have they sent you to us for our preacher ? " 

" Yes, sir." 

" What, you ! and the egg-shell not dropped off of you 
yet ? Loi'd have mercy upon us ! and who have they 
sent in charge ? " 



IN GEORGIA AXD FLORIDA, 17S5-1S65. 



61 



" No one bnt myself, sir." 

"What, you! by yourself ? You in charge of the cir- 
cuit ? Why, wliat is to become of the circuit ? — the 
Bishop had just as well sent nobody. AVhat can you do 
in charge of the circuit ? " 

Very poorly, I fear, sir ; but the Bishop thought you 
would advise me." 

" So, so. I suppose I am to take charge of the cir- 
cuit for you, and you are to do what I tell you." 

" I would be very glad, sir, if you would." 

" Did ever ! What ! I, a local preacher, take charge 
of the circuit ? And is it that you have come here for ? 
How can I take charge of it ? no ! no! But I can see 
that you do it ; such a charge as it will be for these 
days — the Discipline goes for nothing." 

Of course the young timid preacher cowered under 
these merciless blows of the well-meaning but erring old 
man. The next time he came he received another flagel- 
lation ; but that night he heard the dear old wife remon- 
strating with her husband for his severity. Why, 
Betsy, child," he said, " don't you know I love Billy as 
well as you do, and 1 talk to him so because I love 
him?" Billy, as he called him, was no longer afraid, 
and the next morning disarmed the old preacher by tell- 
ing him what he had heard the night before, and changed 
the frown into a laugh. But this was years after ; he 
was now a young man and was now alone on the 
Oconee Circuit ; it probably included Hancock, a part 
of Greene and Washington, and was tra\ elled in two 
weeks. 

With this year's work well done, Eichard Ivy leaves 
Georgia never more to return to it. In two years he is 
in his oTave. He did noble work for the vouno- State. 



62 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



He was the Great Heart of liis day, and he braved all the 
perils of this frontier, and bore all the privations his 
office called for. His district extended from the Savan- 
nah to the Oconee, from the St. Marj's to the moun- 
tains. When he bei>:an his work there w^as not a sino-le 
church building in his district. He had seen the mem- 
bership of the societies quintupled. He had extended 
his line — a skirmish line, it was true — from below 
Savannah to the borders of the Indian nation. He 
had only young men, almost without education, to rel}^ 
upon to aid him. He had no mission funds, no reserve 
of ministerial force to bring up ; never had man a more 
difficult task, not often has man done the work better. 

Reuben Ellis was his successor on the district. He 
had, besides, five appointments in South Carolina. His 
district extended from Charleston in South Carolina, 
to Greene County in Georgia — from the Saluda to the 
Altamaha. Reuben Ellis was one of the first and one 
of the most faithful of the early preachers. Save the 
record that the minutes present of his fields of labor, 
and the short memoir they gave of him, we know very 
little of one whose life must have been full of stirring 
incidents. He was born in North Carolina, and began 
to travel during the Revolution in 1779. He preached 
in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and North Caro- 
lina. When presiding elders were first appointed in 
1785, he was one — first in North Carolina, in the east 
and west of this State, among pine forests, swamps and 
mountains ; then on a district extending from Salis- 
bury to Columbia, S. C, with only four circuits in it. 
He mapped out the work in the frontier countrj^ of 
upper South Carolina, and after four years of hard 
work there he was sent to Georgia. He travelled this 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



63 



laborious district, including nearly all of two States, 
but one year, and then returned to tlie scene of his 
early labors in Yirginia and Maryland. In Baltimore^ 
in 1796, he died. His old comrade in arms, his brother 
beloved, Richard Ivy, went home a few months before 
liiin. They joined the conference together, travelled the 
same circuits and the same districts, were alike holy 
and laborious, and entered into their reward near the 
same time. In" personal appearance they were unlike. 
Ellis was very large in body, but feeble in constitution. 
The Bishop, who had been his bosom friend for twenty 
years, said of him : " It is a doubt whether there be one 
left in the connection higher, if equal to him in stand- 
ing, piety, and usefulness." He began his work in 
Georgia under many difficulties. The Bishop was un- 
able to supply the field with laborers as it should liave 
been supplied. He could only send such men as he 
had — James Tolleson was one of the best of them. He 
came from South Carolina to the Washington Circuit. 
He remained in Georgia for but one year. He was a man 
of fine promise, who filled several of the most impor- 
tant stations with dignity and diligence." He died in 
great peace in Portsmouth, Va. 

From this time, for nearly forty years, there is no 
separate meeting of the Georgia Conference, and this 
affords a proper point from which to survey the first 
year of the Church in Georgia. 

The Methodist preachers have now^ occupied this 
territory for nine years. They have met everywhere 
obstacles of serious kind, but they have had a wonder- 
ful success. We have alluded to the odium attached 



* Minutes. 



64 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



to them for being Armiiiians, and tlie distrust of their 
patriotism, and the needless difficulties Dr. Coke's great 
imprudence in denouncing slaver}^, before he had been 
three months in America, liad caused. Then there was 
their mode of doing things — their revival services, their 
class meetings, their love feasts with closed doors, and 
their stern rebukes of all sin. The membership, when 
they began to work in 17S6, was next to nothing, and, 
despite all the difficulties in the way, Methodist soci- 
eties now dot the State from the very door of the Creeks 
and Cherokees to the cities on the sea-coast, from Florida 
to the Blue Ridge. The work has been outlined, the 
important points seized, and though the force is small, 
yet it will hold its own against all comers. There were 
some tlnngs, however, decidedly in the favor of the 
preachers. The people were starving for the Word ; 
they were literally without God in the world. The 
yery peculiarities of the preachers brought out congre- 
gations to hear them. They wore strait-breasted coats, 
broad-brimmed hats ; they looked as no other men, and 
preached like no others; they often stamped and 
screamed, wept, threatened, exhorted, and invited. All 
felt that they were deeply in earnest. The power of 
the Spirit attended their labors, and many who came to 
scoff remained to pray. 

Yet how heroic was the endurance demanded ! There 
was probably not a bridge in Georgia ; there was not 
a turnpike ; in many whole counties there was not a 
pane of glass ; in some not a saw-mill nor a framed 
building. Pole-cabins, with bebaubed cracks, a dirt 
floor, and a stick-and-dirt chimney, where one room 
furnished living room and sleeping room, were the 
houses of the people. As we have seen, the circuit 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



G5 



preacher found no churclies ready for liim, often- 
times no preaching places selected^ not a single mem- 
ber of the Society. He came into a section, he 
sought out the kind-hearted settler, and left an appoint- 
ment for that day two weeks at his cabin, and on that 
day he came. A cabin full of the iieighbors was there. 
The men w^ere dressed in hunting-shirts, and either / 
barefooted or with Indian moccasins on ; the women in 
the plainest garb of country-made stuff — nearly all of 
them simple-hearted and ignorant. The preacher 
preached, souls were convicted, and after a fearful 
struggling there was a thorough conversion. The 
j)reacher finished his sermon, and on a puncheon the 
plain food, simply " lye hominy" and bear or deer meat, 
was set. After dinner he must ride on, for there was 
another appointment miles beyond. A creek was in 
the way — he swam it ; he had no road, but a blazed 
pathway through the woods led him to the settlement. 
He received no money, for the people had none. His 
clothing was of plainest material, often patched, often 
ragged. Bishop George says Dunwody said, if our 
poverty was our purity, some of us ought to be purified 
ere long." I noticed, said the preacher, a large slit in 
the Bishop's own coat, and this was thirty years after 
this time. It was not often he received even his small 
allowance. Ileniy Smith, of Maryland, came to con- 
ference in these days with four dollars as his total yearly 
receipts. Some of the preachers had a small patrimony, 
which they spent in the work. AVhen a man married, 
lie located ; when he died, they sold his horse and books, 
and paid his burial expenses ; and w^hen he wore out, he 
wandered from neighborhood to neighborhood, cherished 
kindly by his brethren who were able to shelter him. 



66 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



I'lie Georgia people were nearly all poor at this 
period — the Methodists the poorest of the Georgians ; 
and while in Wilkes and in some of the eastern coun- 
ties there were some families of wealth and influence 
who adhered to the Methodists, the general state of the 
country and the Church was in 1793 such as we have 
tried to picture it. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, ITSS-lSeS. 



67 



CHAPTER IV. 

CONTERENCE OF 1795— PhILIP BrUCE— DeCLIXE in the CnrRCH, AXD 

ITS Cause — Samuel Cowles — First General Conference — 
Enoch George — Conference of 1798 — Benjamin Blanton — 
Jksse Lee in Georgia — George Dougherty — Charles Tait — 
Ralph Banks — Alexander McCaine— Conference 1799 — Stith 
Mead — John Garvin — Conference 1800 — Brttton Capel — 
Nicolas Snethen — Conference 1801 and 1802 — J. H. Mellard — 
Great Revival — Camp-Meetings — Conference 1803 — Lorenzo 
Dow— Lewis Myers— Large Increase— Conference 1804. 

The United Conferences made one, and known there- 
after as the Sonth Carolina Conference, met in the forks 
of Broad River, Abbeville District, South Carolina, 
January 1, 179i. 

The con.ference was much straitened for room, hav- 
ing only one chamber twelve feet square to confer in, 
sleep in, and for the accommodation of the sick ; for 
one of the brethren (P. B.), probably Philip Bruce, was 
quite unwell, and so was Asbury. They, however, com- 
pleted their business, and ordained four elders and six 
deacons,"^ 

This year the entire State of South Carolina, and all 
of the State of Georgia then settled, was included in 
one district, which Avas placed in charge of Philip Bruce. 
The circuits were diminished in numbers, and there were 
only three, with six preachers. Hull took an appoint- 
ment at this conference for the last time, as at the next 
he located, to return to the itinerancy no more. Philip 



* Asbury's Journal. 



68 



fflSTORY OF METHODISM 



Bruce, the new presiding elder, was one of the princes 
of earh^ Alethodisni. He was a Virginian, and a direct 
descendant of those Huguenots who, exiled from 
France because of religion, came to Virginia. He 
entered the conference with Thomas Humphries and 
John Major, in 1783. He had now travelled twelve 
years, and from the date of his eldership had been on 
districts. 

His districts were large and important, sweeping from 
the Atlantic seaboard to the Ohio. AVherever the post 
of difficulty and danger was, he was found. Carolina 
and Georgia needed him, and he came to give his ser- 
vices to these important but feebly manned conferen- 
ces. He was a man of fine personal appearance, with 
the striking features of a French Huguenot. His ex- 
pression was calm, dignified, and determined; his man- 
ner most elegant and graceful."^ He had an intellect of 
decidedly high order, and a heart thoroughly consecra- 
ted to the work of the church.f He was a man of such 
spirit and judgment that Asbury leaned on him as a 
second self. He was the corps commander on whom 
that general most relied. He never located, for he 
never married. He travelled for thirty-seven consecu- 
tive years, then was superannuated, and spent his last 
days in Tennessee, though still holding his connection 
with the Virginia Conference. At length, full of years 
and honors, he died. 

Could Bruce have given Georgia, as Ivy had, his entire 
time, a great work must have been done, despite the 
times; but, with two great States to travel over, he could 
do but little towards meeting the demands of any single 



* Sprague and Bennett. 



f Bennett. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



69 



section. He remained only one year on the district, 
and then returned to Virginia. It is not possible, 
however desirable it may be, to give a full account of 
ail the laborers in Georgia at this period. The old 
men who might have told us of them are gone. There 
were neither cliurch newspapers nor magazines in those 
days, and locating, as most of the preachers did, long 
before their death, they drop from the minutes. Of 
Douthet, E-ussell, Posey, Clark, and King, the Georgia 
preachers, w^e know scarcely anything ; of some of them 
only the name. The next year there was not one of them 
this side of the Savannah. 

The year 1794 was a dark year for all the churches in 
Georgia, and especially for Methodism. Laborers were 
imperatively demanded ; but what had the Chnrch to 
promise to men for a life of such toil and sacrifice as 
she required ? All things seemed adverse to religion, 
the country w^as being opened up rapidly, emigrants 
were pouring into the new lands along the banks of the 
Oconee, and with the usual results of unsettled society. 
Political strife was high, the leading men of the State 
were duellists and infidels, and the whole State was in 
a blaze of angry fury, because of the recently per- 
petrated Yazoo fraud. A legislature, openly bribed, 
had sold to a private company, for $500,000, all that 
grand domain west of the Chattahoochee, and wdiich 
includes now the States of Alabama and Mississippi. 
To hunt down the faithless legislators, to threaten and 
denounce them, engaged the people, rather than going 
to week-day preaching or attending class-meeting. 
There was nothing remarkable then in the decreasing 
numbers in society. The conference met in Charlestoji, 
January 1, 1795. The scarcity of laborers rendered 



70 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



it impossible to supply all the work, and one man could 
no longer devote himself to the presidency of the dis- 
trict ; so Josias Randall was placed on the Burke Circuit, 
and in charge of the district. The Savannah, Oconee, 
and Elbert Circuits were given up, and merged into the 
Washington, Burke, and Richmond. The Washington 
Circuit had declined in membership from 900 to 300, 
and there were now reported in the societies of the 
State only 1,028 members, the membership five years 
before having been double that number. The State 
was increasing rapidly in wealth and population, but 
the church could no longer furnish the class of travel- 
ling preachers demand. Hope Hull had located, and 
opened a high school at Succoth Academy, three miles 
from Washington. John Andrew was also teacliing in 
Wilkes. The newly settled sections of the country 
always demand the highest order of men ; but, alas ! 
whence were they now to come ? The Georgia Dis- 
trict took the same shape it had when Ricliard Ivy first 
came in 1788. The preachers in charge were Randle, 
Moore, Guerry, Wilson, Taukersly. Of these three had 
just entered the conference, and of them only Josias 
Randle was to remain in Georgia for any length of 
time. How many separate societies there w^ere then in 
Georgia we cainiot tell. From the records of the 
Baptist Church we learn that there were twenty-six 
churches,* and perhaps half the mimber of preachers. 
There was certainly not less than 100 congregations to 
which the Methodists preached. 

It is evident, from a survey of this period, that the 
great revival from 1786 to 1791 had lost its power, 



* Campbell's Baptists. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 71 



and there was a general religions declension, which 
continned till near the beginning of the new century. 
The conference met in Charleston again Jannary 1, 
1796. Bishop Asbnry was present, and there were 
abont twenty members of the body. The session was a 
peaceful one, and the tide of religions interest rose 
high. The Bishop at tbis conference received the tid- 
ings of the burning of Cokesbury College. It had been 
an ilhadvised enterprise; but the determined Dr. Coke, 
against Asbmy's calmer and better judgment, entered 
npon it, and then returned to England, leaving his 
already burdened colleague to carry the additional and 
very heavy weight. It was now burned, and Asbury 
gave himself to work more pleasing and successful than 
building a college."^ 

Jonathan Jackson and Josias Eandle were appointed 
to the Burke Circuit, and Jackson was to have charge 
of the district, but* the design was for each of thein to 
visit the older sections of the State, and endeavor to 
establish Methodism there. 

Samuel Cowles, another Virginian, who was to do 
nuich work for the Church in Georgia, came this year 
to the State. He had been a dragoon with Washing- 
ton's Light Horse. In the battle of Cowpens he swept 
down with upraised sabre upon a British trooper, whom 
he disarmed, and was about to cut him down. The 
trooper gave him the Masonic signal of distress, and he 
spared his life. Years after, he met his old foe in 
Thomas Darley, a brother-in-arms, in the Sonth Caro- 
lina Conference. 

As Asbnry was making a journey through Virginia, 



* Asbury's Journal, 



72 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



he spent a Bight at his mother's, and with them left a 
good book. ThiT)iig'h its ii]flueiice the family was con- 
yerted, and Samuel became a preacher. He travelled 
for some years, then located and settled in the new 
county of Warren. Here he labored as a local preacher, 
and as there was Cowles' Iron Works in the county, he 
probably became an iron-maker. He removed to Mon- 
roe County in its early settlement, and died a good man, 
at a good age. 

Asbury crossed the river not far fj'om Augusta, and 
rode through the city, wdiose streets, he mentions, had 
been ploughed into deep gullies for two miles by the 
angry waters of the Savainiah. On this visit, for the 
first time Asbury preached in the city in the old St. 
Paul's Church, which was, at that period, free to all. 
His congregation consisted of 400 hearers.^ He rode 
on through Columbia County, and after preacliing at 
White Oak, was forced to ride fifteen miles after ser- 
mon before he could get his dinner. He swam Little 
River hi Wilkes, and on Friday was at Combs' Meeting- 
House, and that evening at Gartrell's. The next day 
he rode to the school at Coke's Chapel, three miles 
from Washington. Here Hope Hull had his academy. 
He then preached at Pope's Chapel, and crossed the 
river into South Carolina at Petersburg. There was 
but little change, and no improvement in the condition 
of things this year. 

The General Conference met every four years. It 
was composed of all the travelling elders of the 
Church. The main body of its members were tliere- 
fore always from those conferences nearest to the place 



* Journal, 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



73 



of meeting, which had been and was Baltimore. It met 
this year m that city, and we have the first printed 
record of its doings. 

At this conference the form of a deed of settlement 
for chnrch property, based upon the one so steiii! 
required by Mr. Wesley in England, which aimed to 
place the property where neither the ambition of 
preachers nor the whims of congregations could affect 
it, was decided upon. Rules were adopted for the 
graduation of deacons to elder's orders. Provision was 
made for the publication of a magazine like the 
Arminian Magazine in England. Specific rules were 
adopted, evidently at the instance of Dr. Coke, for the 
regulation of the students in our seminaries. These 
rules were Spartan enough in their sternness, and 
entirely impracticable. The plan for a chartered fund 
was adopted ; slavery came in for its share of fruitless 
legislation. The preachers were instructed to proceed 
against all who retailed spirituous liquors, as in the 
case of other immoralities. The allowances for the 
preachers were fixed at sixty-four dollars for a man, 
and the same for his wife, with nothing for family 
expenses. 

During the year a decline of forty members was 
reported in the Georgia Conference. It will be remem- 
bered that church discipline w^as summary and certain 
in those days. Three times absence from class, a 
ribbon, a ruffle, or a ring, and the preacher erased the 
name from the class-book. To be turned out of society 
Avas a constant dread of the conscientious member, and 
a neglect to enforce discipline the most serious charge 
against a preacher. The Montanists of the early 
church were scarcely more rigid in discipline than the 
4 



74 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



early Methodists, therefore these figures do not indicate 
no success in winnino; souls. 

The Confei-ence of 1797 met in Charleston, and 
tliis time Coke was with Asbury. There were cheering 
reports, says Asbury's Journal, from Georgia, but there 
are certainly none in the printed minutes. 

The appointments this year were the best which had 
been made for several years. 

Enoch George, afterwards Bishop, took the district, 
and James Jenkins was preacher iu charge of the Wash- 
ington Church. Hope Hull was placed as a supply 
on the Augusta station, though it does not appear that 
he Avent there ; if he did, it is certain he organized no 
church. Randall, with two young assistants, was in 
lower Georgia. Enoch George was a Virginian, and 
when he came to Georgia was about thirty years of age. 
He had been converted under the flaming ministry of 
John Easten, and entered the mhiistry soon afterward. 
After travelling a very hard circuit in North Carolina 
as a supply, he entered the conference regulai'ly. He 
came at once to South Carolina, and after a few years 
on circuits was made presiding elder. This year he 
was on the Georgia District. There were only three 
circuits in his district, but they covered almost the 
whole State. Six preachers had all the work to do. 
The Church had not prospered since Richard Ivy left 
the State and Hope Hull located. 'No presiding elder 
had been able to give it all his time, at a day when it 
needed it most. George came in good time. He was 
the man for the occasion. 

He was rather gross-looking. Plis hair was thick, 
bushy, and long. He was very careless in his dress, 
and was not prepossessing in his appearance ; his voice 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1805. 



75 



was rich and sweet, his enunciation clear and distinct. 
In prayer he had wonderfnl power. In preaching he 
wept, and all abont him wept. His piety was deep and 
beautiful,'^ his consecration to the work entire, and his 
snccess in winning souls was great. He gave himself 
to his work in Georgia with great zeal, and with his 
coming the ebbing tide was stayed. It did not until 
a few years after rise to a flood, but it ceased to ebb. 
James Jenkins was now on the Washington Circuit, 
and we get the first clear view of its boundaries. It 
included the at present counties of Greene, Taliaferro, 
Wilkes, Lincoln, Elbert, Hart, Franklin, Madison, and 
Oglethorpe. There were now a number of church 
buildings erected. Among them was Burke's Meeting- 
house and Liberty Chapel, in Greene, At Liberty 
Chapel, Jenkins exhorted after George, and a man in 
uniform came forward, and falling at his feet, begged 
him to pray for him ; others came likewise, and this, 
says Jenkins, was, as far as he knew, the beginning of 
the custom of public profession of penitence, or, in 

i Methodist parlance, going to the altar. The meeting, 

i he says, was such a noisy one that he wondered the 
horses did not take fright.f 

The Conference of 1798 met in Chai-leston, but for 

I the first thne Asbury was absent. He was sick in 
Virginia. The disease of his lungs, which finally caused 
his death, had so alarmingly threatened him then, that 
his physicians forbade his travelling. The responsibility 
of the appointments rested with Dr. Coke ; but he was 
assisted by Jesse Lee, who had been requested by As- 

, bury to go to Charleston. Dr. Coke, on his journey 



* Dr. Luckey in Sprague, 



f Jenkins' Life, 83. 



7G 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



from England, had been captured by a French pri- 
vateer, and after being stripped of all his other goods, 
with his books and papers, had been landed on the Vir- 
ginia coast, and had reached the Virginia Conference. 
He now came south with Jesse Lee. The conference 
concluded its session without having accomplished any- 
thing of special note. 

Enoch George, strong as he was, broke down in the 
work, and did not return to the Georgia District, but 
was succeeded by Benj. Blanton. lie was a Virginian, 
who had been ten years in the work. He began his 
itinerancy in the mountains of Virginia, and ended it in 
Georgia. After travelling the district this year he lo- 
cated and settled in Oglethorpe County, where he lived 
a useful local preacher for many years. He married 
this year a Miss Huet, ^ and, as was universally the cus- 
tom, ceased to itinerate. He was a pure, good man, 
Avho always took the greatest interest in the Church, and 
did much for it. When an old man, in love-feast one 
day, he said " that he thought, when he had been forty 
years in the wilderness, he would have been called to 
cross Jordan ; but he had been now over forty years in 
it, and he was still browsing on the banks of the river." 
He re-entered the conference in his old age, and was 
at once superannuated. His family, in 1845, had gone 
to the camp-meeting, and he was to follow, but that 
evening, being quite unwell, he remained with hi& wife 
and some of his children at home. That night lie sat 
np in bed and prayed aloud for the last time with un- 
nsual power, and the next day sank calmly to sleep on 
the bosom of his Lord. He was thrice married, and his 



* Jenkins. 



m GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



77 



children and grandchildren are at this time among the 
most useful members of the church to which he g-ave 
his early life. 

After the adjournment of the conference, Lee 
visited Georgia, going as far west as the Oconee, in 
Greene County, and returning in February. He crossed 
the Savannah at Bardsdale Ferry. He says he was greatly 
comforted with his visits to Georgia, where he spent 
twenty-seven days, and preached twenty-one sermons. 
The country w^as much better than he expected to find 
it, and the parts in which he travelled were chiefly 
settled by Virginians. They lived well, but apjDeared 
to him to be ungovernable in church and state. It was 
a good country for corn, tobacco, and cotton, and also 
for oats, w^ieat, and potatoes. In the pine w^oods there 
w^ere a gi-eat many salamanders, wdiich perhaps were 
not found in any other State in the Union. He ex- 
pected that there would be a great revival of religion in 
Georgia soon.^ In this hope he was not disappointed, 
as we shall see. 

George Dougherty was appointed this year to the 
Oconee Circuit, which was again called into existence. 
The Cherokees and Creeks were on the w^estern bank of 
the river still, but the fields of the white settlers were 
on its eastern borders. The circuit was a large one 
and a hard one, and courage was demanded from the 
man who was to do the work, and there never was a 
braver heart in a frail body than that which beat in the 
bosom of the inexperienced boy who was sent to these 
wilds. He had only one eye, was pitted with small- 
pox, and was most careless about his dress. He had no 



* Thrift's Life of Lee. 



78 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



outward marks of greatness, bat we doubt wliether the 
American pulpit ever had in it a truer genius or a more 
regal soul than George Dougherty. Tliis was his second 
jeaVy and the only one spent in Georgia. He then i-e- 
turned to South Carolina, where he toiled faitlifully 
until the burning soul consumed his frail frame, and, in 
what should have been the vigor of his life, he died."^ 
He was, we have said, a genius, and his attainments 
were remarkable. " He used," said old Dr. Pierce, " to 
visit my father's house, and when on his district my 
first year I read to him from the English Bible, while 
he compared the version with the original Hebrew." 
There was much infidelity in those days, and Dougherty 
gave careful study to the science of apologetics. His 
attainments here amazed those scholarly men who 
heard him. His sermons were rich in original thoughts, 
full of pathos and power. His denunciations of sin 
were fearless and stirring. The mob in Charleston, 
angered by his faithfulness, once nearly caused his 
death by pumping water upon him from the town 
pump, and he was only rescued by the courage of a 
good woman, who, rushing to the pump, stuffed her 
apron in the spout.f Bishop Andrew was rarely more 
enthused than when telling of the traditions of his pul- 
pit power, and Dr. Lovick Pierce, who knew him well, 
so carried away as when telling the story of his elo- 
quence, learning, and J)iety. When the history of Meth- 
odism in Soutli Carolina is written it may be that he will 
be placed on his true pedestal. To the present genera- 
tion he would be almost unknown, save for the faithful 
labors of a Presbyterian, the good Dr. Sprague, who 



* Sprague. 



f Mood. 



m GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



79 



from Bishop Andrew and Dr. Pierce, gathered the re 
raaiiiiiig fragments of fact from which to erect his 
monument. The last conference he attended was in 
tlie bounds of the only circuit he had travelled in 
Georgia. 

Bishop Asbury's health having improved, he came to 
Georgia in November. He crossed the Savannah 
above Augusta, and stopped with Wm. Tait, and preach- 
ed at Tait's Chapel. Wm. Tait was probably the father 
of Judge Charles Tait, the great friend of W. H. Craw- 
ford, and afterward senator m Congress. The son was 
himself the friend of Asbury, and in after years Asbuiy 
w^as entertained at his own home. He went from thence 
to Ealph Banks. Ralph Banks was his host often after 
tliis. He was a remarkable man and brought up a re- 
markable family. On one of Asbury's visits to Elbert 
he mentioned that he stopped with Ralph Banks, whose 
handsome and healthy wife, thirty-six years old, had 
twelve children. From this family sprang some of the 
leading Methodist families in Georgia, and of eight 
sons, every one of them arrived at distinction, and 
several of them acquired great wealth, and all of them 
preserved their Methodist connections. Their descend- 
ants are to-day a numerous and influential people in 
the State, and nearly all of them leading Methodists. 
From that home he w^ent to Franklin County to the home 
of Henry Parks, and then turning his course soutlnvard 
he came to Charles Wakefield's, in Oglethorpe, and sent 
Jesse Lee to visit the banks of the Ogeechee, while he 
remained behind to nurse Benj. Blanton, who was sick. 
The next day he rode to Burrell Pope's, riding from one 
plantation to another on Blanton's stiff-jointed horse, 
which he said he would not ride except to save souls or 



80 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



the health of a brother.^ Jesse Lee having accomplish- 
ed his work, returned to Asbury, and they went to Henry 
Pope's. They now turned their course westward, and 
in December, 1799, he preached in Greensboro. Here 
there was a Presbyterian church, the first mention we 
have of one in upper Georgia ; it was established by 
Fatlier Cumniings, the first Presbyterian minister in this 
part of the State. The county of Greene had been a 
separate county for thirteen years, and it is probable 
that from the very first it had been included in the 
bounds of the Washincrton Cinniit. Although' we had no 
church in Greensboro, there were sevei-al in Greene 
County, such as they were : one at Burke's, one at Crutch- 
field's, and at Little Britain, which was 0]3en at the top, 
bottom, and sides." f Hope Hull, Josias Randle, Sam- 
uel Cowles, and Wm. Patridge, met the good Bishop, and 
they had a family meeting at Mother Hill's. She was 
probably the mother of Whitman C. Hill, and lived in 
Oglethorpe County. They had (piarterly meetings at 
Mark's, and rode twenty miles to Hope Hull's, near 
Washington. He preached at David Merriwether's, and 
took saddle for Augusta. All the trading of the countiy 
vvas then with Augusta, so that the roads were wretched. 
They, however, ploughed through the mud, and reached 
that city by the Sabbath. 

Here Asbury says he heard a sermon in the morning 
and preached one in the afternoon. Asbury now re- 
crossed the Savannah and entered into South Carolina, 
and went to Charleston, where the conference session 
was to be held. During all this journey Jesse Leo 
travelled with Bishop Asburj^ , and was his most efiicient 



* Asbury' s Journal. 



t Ibid. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 81 



colaborer. No two men could have differed more in 
everything except the aim, grand and glorious, to which 
each of tlieir lives was directed. Lee was large in body, 
and Asbury delicate. Lee was full of humor, and 
Asbury grave and thoughtful. Lee found a joy in the 
encounter with difficulties, and to Asbury the sweet quiet 
of home was the delight of life. Lee in the middle ages 
would have been Richard of tlie Lion Heart, Asbury St. 
Francis of Assise. Lee had ere this time made his 
power felt over the whole connection. From the Penob- 
scot to the Oconee he had labored. Like some brave 
knight of the olden time, his massive form and the 
flashing battle-axe had been seen where the foes were 
the strongest and their ranks were the thickest. He had 
gone to New England alone and unfriended, and, against 
intolerance the fiercest and opposition the sternest, he 
had planted Metliodism in all that land. He will appear 
in our history in an after-day more than once, but not 
as we would have desired to see him, as the episcopal 
colleague of Francis Asbury. Had this intrepid, ener- 
getic, earnest Virginian, in middle life, been chosen 
instead of the shrinking, retiring and aged Whatcoat, to 
the office of Bishop, the Church had been better served 
when she needed service most, and the overburdened 
Asbury relieved and assisted. 

Samuel Cowles returned again to Georgia, and was 
on the Washington Circuit. He was accompanied by 
Alexander McCaine. McCaine was a young man of 
fine person and of fine gifts, and was destined to occupy 
a high place in the Church, for he was stationed in after- 
years in the leading cities of the East. After thirty 
years of active and efficient ministry among the Episco- 
pal Methodists, he left his old associates and was one of 



82 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



the founders of the Methodist Protestant Church. lie 
occupied a prominent place in this body till his death, 
which occurred in 1856. BLe lived to see the church of 
his early love, for whose welfare the best energies of his 
young and mature life were put forth, sadly torn and 
divided ; to see Snethen, Shinn and Jennings in bitter 
strife with their old colleagues ; he lived to see all the 
smoke of battle pass away, and until almost all remem- 
brance of the strife had ended, and to see some of his 
own children and grandchildren in the church which he 
had left ; and to have the kindly care of the ministers 
in his last hours ; and when he died, it was from the 
altars of the Methodist Episcopal Church the old hero 
was buried. 

Nicolas Waters came from Maryland to take place 
on the Burke Circuit. He was the brother of Wm. Wa- 
ters, the first native American who entered the travelling 
connection. He entered the ministry in 1776, located 
in 1779, re-entered the connection, and finally died iu 
Charleston in 1804. He was at this time fifty years old, 
and had been really at work since 1772, though not 
regularly licensed till four years later. He was a con- 
secrated man, distinguished for his moral courage, 
ardent zeal, and unwearying labors. His heavenly- 
mindedness and uniform simplicity of deportment 
greatly endeared him to his brethren."^ His family 
removed to Georgia after his death, and one of his 
grandsons, Wm. Waters Oslin, is in the Georgia Con- 
ference at the present time. 

The Church gained ground, though slowly. The 
membership was 1,318. For the first time Augusta ap- 



* Mood and the Minutes. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



83 



pears in the minutes, and Methodism in Georgia re- 
ports one considerable town in her list of appointments. 
For fifteen years the preacliers had been at work, but 
they had made up to this time no impression on the 
two important towns in the State. There were really 
only three of any size in Georgia — Savannah, Augusta, 
and Petersburg, in Elbert County. In none of these had 
the Methodists a church building, and in only one of 
them a society. 

The Conference of 1799 met at Charleston. Bishop 
Asbury was able to come to it, and to preside. Josias 
Kandle was forced to locate for a time. It w^as a de- 
plorable necessity indeed that called for the location of 
such men as Richard Ivy, Reuben Ellis, Hope Hull, 
Benj. Blanton, and Josias Randle ; but excessive labor, 
exposure to all kinds of weather, and preaching every 
day, and hardships of every kind, w^ere too much for the 
strong men even of that iron age, and they were driven 
from tlie work not only by their family needs, but often 
by failing health. At this conference Stith Mead, who 
was reported as being on the Burke Circuit with Wm. 
Avant, became regularly a member of the conference. 
In our chapter on Methodism in the cities we have 
given a full sketch of the father of Methodism in 
Augusta. Georgia had long needed such a man, if she 
had not deserved him, and he came not a moment too 
soon — the very man for the very time. Blanton took 
the district for the second and last time. Samuel Cowles 
was the only one of the old line who remained in 
Georgia. There was an entirely new detachment sent 
to the field. Stith Mead was sent as preacher on the 
Burke Circuit, and with him was Wm. Avant, wdth the 
evident design of leaving Mead in Augusta, in which 



84 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



he was trying to build a church. Tobias Gibson was 
sent this year as missionary to the Natchez Country, 
John Garvin to the St. Mary's. While all Georgia 
west of the Oconee was in the possession of the Indians, 
there was a considerable body of white settlers on the 
banks of the Mississippi, in what was called the Natchez 
Country. Some of them had floated down the Ohio and 
Mississippi in flatboats, to those fertile lands in what is 
now Adams County, Miss. To them Bishop Asbury 
desired to send a preacher, and Tobias Gibson volun- 
teered to go. He was a South Carolinian, and was, at 
tliis session of the conference, twenty-nine years old. 
He had entered upon the work as a travelling preacher 
when twenty-one, and had faithfully travelled hard 
circuits in North and South Carolina. There were 
then more hardships to be met with in travelling to the 
banks of the Mississippi than a voyage to China now 
entails. To reach his new field Gibson rode on horse- 
back to the falls of the Cumberland at Nashville, thence 
took a canoe, and finally reached the settlements near 
Natchez. Here he labored for several years, the sole 
missionary to this, the most remote of the American 
settlements, and here, a few years afterwards, he died in 
great peace. Like one of the first missionaries — even 
Barnabas, he was a good man, full of faith and the Holy 
Ghost.^ 

From the same conference, Jesse Lee, with John 
Garvin, a young Englishman, who had just come from 
the African coast, where he had been laboring as a 
missionary, and who had been appointed to the set- 
tlements on the St. Mai-y's, went on a visit to this. 



* Mood and Minutes. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



85 



the most remote southern point of the American settle- 
ments. 

Florida was in the possession and under the govern- 
ment of the Spaniards. Along the banks of the St. 
Mary's and of the Saltilla, and in the pine country back 
from the coast, there were a number of settlers, and the 
town of St. Mary's was a place, even then, of some 
importance. The year before, George Clark had been 
a missionary to them, and had formed a small society 
in Camden and Glynn Counties. There was one 
church, and one only, as far as we have been able to' 
discover, south of Savannah. This was the Medway 
Congregational Church in Liberty County. Lee left 
Savannah early in January, and rode Asbury's old 
gray — who, as the Bishop says — suffered for it, through 
the lower part of South Carolina, to Savannah, and 
thence to the St. Mary's. There was a most remarkable 
snow Etorm, at this time, snow falling to the depth of 
two and a half feet. He reached Savannah, and then 
rode through the wilds. The first night he was forced 
to lodge in a deserted log-cabin without doors, and 
with thirty or forty hogs for room-mates. He reached 
St. Mary's on the 18th, and preached in the Conrt 
House. He rode on, preaching every day, and found 
a rongh people, many of whom had never heard a 
sermon, f 

He left Garvin there and returned to Charleston. At 
the end of the year Garvin reported fourteen in the 
society. The Conference for 1800 met in Camden, 
S. C. It met at nine a.m.. and adjourned at twelve, 
and had an afternoon session. These sessions were 



* Asbury's Journal. 



f Dr. Lee, Life of Jesse Lee. 



86 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



chiefly religions meetings. Each preacher told his 
experience, an.d each one had his character thoroughly 
examined. Every night there was a band meeting. 

Isaac Smith then lived in Camden, and it was at his 
instance the session was held thei'e. Tw^o others and 
himself sustained the South Carolina Conference, but 
then it was composed of less than thirty members.^ 
The conference did not hurry through its work, for it 
sat for five days. There were two clerks to keep the 
journals, and one for the minutes. The sixty-four dol- 
lars allowed for the yearly expenses of the preachers, 
w^as j)aid from a general fund collected on the charges. 
Fi'om the Bishop to the humblest preacher, the salary 
was the same, and this year it was all paid, save a trifle. 

The conference lost one of its most efticient laborers 
in the location of Benjamin Blanton. It was his last 
conference as an effective preacher. 

Stith Mead was now placed in charge of the Georgia 
District. A better appointment could not have been 
made, and from this time for nearly ten years the work 
in the State went on with steady prosperity. 

Mead was an eminently useful preacher. He was 
not a highly gifted man, nor were his sermons, judged as 
intellectual productions, great ; but he was deeply pious, 
untiring in labors, fervent, and pathetic ; he sang w^ell, 
and sang many revival songs of his own composing. In 
addition to this, he w^as an accomplished gentleman, of ^ 
elegant manners, and of good cultivation for those times. 
He found ready admission to all circles, and as much 
the larger number of the people were from Virginia, of 
which State he was a native, his influence was decided. 



* Asbury's Journal. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-18(35. 



87 



He liad therefore great success in his work. Sam- 
uel Cowles now went to the important Oconee Circuit, 
and John Garvin to Augusta. Moses Black, who did 
good work in the West in after-time, was this year on 
the Burke Circuit, and Isaac Cook also received an j 
appointment in Georgia, j 

Britton Capel was sent to the Washington Circuit 
with Buddy Wheeler. Capel was a Virginian, and had 
been two years in the work. He travelled for eleven 
years, and located in 1810. He was an active and use- 
ful preacher, and while he was an itinerant had the 
most important charges.-^ After his location he became 
dissatisfied with the Episcopal form of government, and, 
in common with Eppes Tucker and several others 
of the early preachers, he left the Methodist Episcopal 
Church for the Methodist Protestant, and in that com- ' 
munion he died. In May of this year the General Con- 
ference met in Baltimore and Eichard Whatcoat was 
elected Bishop, defeating Jesse Lee by four votes after 
a tie-vote had been had. Lee, who had been really a 
bishop for some years, and who had so nearly been 
elected, was assured of misrepresentation having been 
made, and succeeded in fixing it upon the guilty party, 
and that fact accounted for his defeat. 

Among those who had laboi-ed in Georgia who were 
I present was Philip Bruce, James Tolleson, and Jesse 
Lee. The conference continued in session for two 
weeks. Asbury was sick and was much depressed in 
;spirits. He was anxious to retire from the episcopal 
oflice, but the conference passed a vote of ai3proval and 
requested him to continue in it. The rule requiring a 



* Dr. L. Pierce. 



88 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



preacher to give account of his presents was rescinded. 
ToUeson proposed a delegated general conf erence, which 
proposal w^as negatived. 

Tolleson moved the allowance of the preachers be 
increased to eighty dollars per annum, which was 
carried. It was moved that the Bishop should have 
a committee to assist him in making the appointments, 
which was not assented to. Very important changes took 
place in the management of the publishing interests. 
The whole of the assets of the concern were $4.000 ; 
the indebtedness, $3,000. Ezekiel Cooper, however, 
was a business man of fine capacity, and he took charge 
of the book concern, with a salary of $250 per annum, 
clear of board and house rent.'^ 

On the 29th of November, Asbury, with Bishop 
Whatcoat, reached Augusta. They found the indefati- 
gable Mead had succeeded in securing all that was need- 
ful for building the church. Whatcoat preached at 
Mr. Fary's dwelling-house, and in the afternoon As- 
bury preached at St. Paul's Church. He says we had 
the honor of the priest's compan}^ As there was quite 
a number of French refugee Catholics from Hayti, it 
is probable that the priest was a Roman Catholic. The I 
next day Whatcoat and Asbury went to Squire Haynes, j 
on Uchee Creek, thence to Scott's, and on to Grrant's. j 
On Sunday they were at Coke's Chapel, near Washing- 
ton. Hope Hull was of course there, and exhorted 
after Asbury. From Washington they came south- 
ward into Warren County, and preached at Heath'sjl 
Crossed the Ogeechee at Thweat's Bridge, passed througlrf 
Powelton, and came thence to Edmund Butler's, in 



* General Conference Journal. 



m GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



89 



Hancock. There had been a meeting-house here long 
enough for the old one to give way to a new one, which 
was not yet completed/'^ This was in 1800. The first 
missionary to Hancock came in 1792, but it is probable 
that this church was in the old Richmond Circuit, and 
was founded before Hancock County was laid out, 
M'hich was done in 1793. They then returned, and 
passing through Oglethorpe and Elbert, crossed the 
river at Martins' Ferry. 

Tiie great revival tide which swept over America 
came in blessing to Georgia this year. The Baptists 
participated largelj^ in it, and during tlie next year, 
1802, over 700 new members were reported in one asso- 
ciation. f At this conference, January 1, 1802, tliere 
was reported 2,094 white and 400 colored. 

On the 31st October, Asbury, Whatcoat, and Xicolas 
Snethen entered Augusta. The church was now so 
far completed that it could be occupied. The congre- 
gations were large, but there was no considerable 
awakening. Nicolas Snethen, who came with Asbuj-y, 
was a Marylander, and was one of the most eloquent 
and cultivated men of the connection. He afterwards, 
in common with many others, went into the Methodist 
Protestant Church, and had much to do in giving shape 
to an organization more in accordance, as he thought, 
with his hrmly held views of religious liberty.:}: The 
three travellers pursued their usual route, visiting 
Wilkes, and on to Petersburg;. This was then a vouncr 
town, in which there were eighty stores; now not a 
cottage remains. Snethen had been very popular at 
Augusta, and Asbury, at the request of the congrega- 



* Asbury's Journal, f CampbeU's Baptists, j Sprague's Annals. 



90 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



tioii there, sent liim back to spend some time in the 
city. The Bisliop speaks of the sweet peace which 
filled his lieart as he went from cabin to cabin, tnrning 
the cabin into a conrt.* At Henry Pope's they found 
good quarters. Here the Bishop wrote in his journal : 
'* Why should a living man complain: But to be three 
inontlis together, wdiere you have only one room and 
fireplace and half a dozen folks about you, strangers 
perliaps, the family for certain. Hence, you must 
meditate here, preach, read, w^rite, pray, sing, talk, 
drink, eat and sleep, or flee to the woods." 

On Sunday, at Pope's, the congregation was not far 
from a thousand people. The Bishop preached ; Hope 
Hull and Stitli Mead exhorted. TJien they rode to 
General John Stewart's, and by Liberty Chapel to Peho- 
botli, in Warren. There was a great meeting at Heath's. 
The love-feast began at nine and continued till three 
o'clo(;k. Eight souls were converted that day. The 
Bishop preached in the woods, but was interrupted by 
the singing and shouting.f He now came to Sparta for 
the first time. Hancock County, of which Sparta is 
the county site, was laid out in 1773. Sparta was, there- 
fore, a frontier village not ten years old when this visit 
was made. 

Quite a number of Virginians from Dinwiddie County, 
several of them followers of Devereux Jarratt, an 
Episcopal minister and the eai-ly friend of the Metho- 
dists, w^ere settled here. Among them was that good 
man, John Lucas, who was for so long a time the pillar 
of the Church in that section. Asbury preached in the 
village, probably at the Court House, as there was no 



* Asbury 's Journal. 



f Journal. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



91 



cliiirch there at this time. This is the first mention we 
have of Sparta. The first preaching done in the vilhige 
was probably by the preachers on the Richmond Circuit, 
and the first time it was made regularly an appoint- 
ment was probably when George Dougherty came to 
the Oconee Cii'cuit in 1799; but before Sparta was settled 
there were several appointments in Hancock and some 
in Washington, in wliich county a part of the present 
Hancock was included. Asbury left Sparta and rode 
into Washington County and through Jelferson, preach- 
ing in Louisville, then the capital of the State, and by 
Coxe's Meeting-house in Burke, back to Augusta. 
This Coxe's Meeting-house was probably the present Mt. 
Zion, in the northern part of Burke County. He thns 
made an exitensive tour ; important results followed it. 

In two weeks after they left Georgia, confei*ence 
session began in Camden. This was on January 1, 1S02. 
The tour they had just ended had prepared them for a 
judicious arrangement of the work. It was entirely re- 
organized. The circuits took the names of the rivers 
which flow through them, and we are at some trouble 
to locate their boundaries. The Broad River and Little 
River Circnits occupy the territorj^ formerly included 
in the Washington Cii-cuit. The Broad River, which 
runs through the lower part of Elbert, gave the name to 
the circuit which included the upper part of Wilkes, 
Oglethorpe, Madison, Franklin and Hart Circuits; the 
Little River, the lower part of Wilkes, Lincoln, Talia- 
ferro, and Columbia ; the Apalachee, a part of Ogle- 
thorpe, Greene, Clarke, and a part of Warren ; the 
Ogeechee, the old Burke and Richmond Circuits ; and 
the Oconee, Hancock, Washington, and a part of War- 
ren. We have been thus particular, for no true idea of 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



the labors, successes, and failures of tlie preachers cau 
be gathered without a study of the geography of the 
State in those times. Augusta continues a station. The 
conference, after a session of great peace, adjourned, 
having paid each preacher his stipend of $80 per year. 
Stith Mead was again on the Georgia District, and 
Isaac Cook was placed on Apalachee Circuit. Samuel 
Cowles was on the Oconee, John Campbell goes to St. 
Mary's, and J. II. Mellard to the Ogeechee. Josias Ran- 
dle had now re-entered the work, and with Britton 
Capel was on Little Eiver, and Milligan and Russell 
were on Broad River. The work was ably manned, and 
with the stirring, soul-fired Mead at their head, the 
preachers had a gloi-ious future before them. 

James H. Mellard, who was this year on the Ogeechee 
Circuit, was in the second year of his ministry. He was 
a little man, thin and pale, but very wiry and full of. 
pluck and energy. He travelled the Union Circuit the 
year before this, and was now sent to the Ogeechee Cir- 
cuit. After this he was sent to Georgetown, S. G 
Finding the people would not go to church, he went to 
the market-house to preach. The mob brought down 
a drum, and tried to keep him from being heard ; but 
lie preached more earnestly. They threatened to drown 
him, but the intrepid little preacher kept on."^ That 
year there was a great revival in Georgetown. He 
travelled till 1810, when he located. He removed from 
South Carolina, in the early settlement of Alabama, to 
that State, where he died.f He preserved a pure 
character to the end, and his zeal for the Church knew 
no abatement. As a travelling preacher, the only charge 



* Mood. 



f Deems's Annals. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1805. 



93 



made against him was that he would not turn people 
out of the Church. 

This was a year of great revival. Beginning in Ken- 
tucky in 1799, there was a work of grace, the most 
wonderful America had ever seen, which s\Yept over 
the whole land. Camp-meetings grew out of it, and 
they advanced it. Cook, McGee, Mclvendree, in the j 
West; Jesse Lee, Douglas, Ballew, in Virginia; Stith 
Mead, Hope Hull, Handle, Blanton, in Georgia ; 
Tarpley, Dougherty, Myers, James Jenkins, in South 
Carolina — constituted a corps of evangelists such as are 
not often met with. It was not a swollen summer tor- 
rent which exhausted itself in an hour, but a steady 
stream of blessings for years. The church was vital- 
ized in all its parts. It never increased more rapidly 
in numbers and in spiritual power. From 1800 to 1812 
the revival tire blazed. There was constant effoi't to 
save souls, there was intense spiritual interest, and 
there were those strange phenomena which have always 
attended great religious excitements. Men and women 
fell senseless under the weio-ht of their emotions. The 
excited soul deprived the mind of all control over the 
body, and there were jerking exercises, barking, danc- 
ing, and many other physical extravagances. The 
timid were alarmed at this. The more thoughtful de- 
plored its wildness, while the more superstitious con- 
founded these mere physical manifestations of excited 
feeling with religion itself. The Christian philosopher 
has neither to lay aside his common sense, his philoso- 
phy, nor his faith, to account for all this. It was 
neither directly of God or of the devil. These phe- 
nomena were the natural results of an intensity of feel- 
ing, rational enough in itsorig in, and legitnnate in every 



^ 94 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



way, but which a clear, cool reason did not, and perhaps 
could not, properly direct. Man and woman alike, in- 
fidel and Christian alike, w^ere subject to these nervous 
excitements ; but only when a true penitence and a 
livii]g faith was at the base were the effects of this 
intense excitement good and abiding. JJr. Pierce 
gives, in the Advocate of 1874, an account of these 
remarkable manifestations of feeling, such as had not 
been seen before in American Methodism, and such as 
were not seen afterwards. David Brainerd had some- 
wdiat the same experience among the Indians, White- 
field and Wesley among tlie colliers, and Whitefield and 
his Presbyterian friends in Cambuslang among the 
Scotch. 

Mead was in his glory in a great revival, and he 
swept like a conqueror from one part of his large 
district to another. Out of this revival sprang the 
camp-meetings in Georgia ; the first of which we 
have account in the State was in Oglethorpe County. 
There were neither tents to dwell in, nor a roof to 
shelter the worshipper. A grove and a spring were 
chosen, and a stand for the preachers was built. 
Logs were cut for seats, and the people in wagons 
and carts flocked to the meeting, sometimes going 
seventy-five miles to it. At the cam.p-meeting in 
Oglethorpe, Hope Hull and Benj. Blanton, besides 
the itinerants, were present. Among those converted 
at that meeting was Major Floyd, father of Judge 
Jno. J. Floyd and of Stewart Floyd, Esq., formerly of 
Madison. 

The next year, 1803, there was a camp-meeting on 
Slioulderbone, not far from Sparta ; at this meeting there 
were 176 tents^ and Dow supposed thei-e were 3,000 peo- 



m GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 17S5-1S65. 



95 



pie on the ground.^ From 1802, foi' nearly forty years 
these meetuigs increased, until at last the Georgia Con- 
ference, about 1838, advised against their mnltiplication. 
The Old Liberty, Hastings, A\^hite Oak, Eichmond, and 
Sparta camp-grounds have been the scenes of gi'eat 
battles and of great victories. 

Lorenzo Dow, after having consented to take a 
circuit in ±sew England, icas impressed that he ought 
to come to Georgia, and as his lungs were weak and 
his head hard, he decided against the advice of his 
friends that he would come, and took passage for 
Savannah. He reached that city early in 1802. He 
found no Methodist church there, but a Mr. Cloud, 
one of the Hammettites, as the followers of Mr. 
Hammett were called, had a place to preach in, and 
about seventy hearers. He preached for him, and for 
Andrew Marshall, the old colored Baptist preacher. 
He then left Savannah and travelled to Augusta; of his 
stay the reader is referred to the account of Methodism 
in Augusta. One morning, heing irn])ressed that he ought 
to leave Augusta for AVashington, where Hope Hull 
was, he set out before daylight. He had been converted 
under Hull's preaching, in New England, and regarded 
him wnth great affection. He found him at his corn 
crib, and saluted him with " How are you, father ? " The 
father was not enraptured at seeing one whose strange 
impressions had led him to go on foot through England, 
Wales, and Ireland, and now to come to Georgia ; but 
he treated him very kindly, and gave him some sound 
advice about discarding these impressions and sticking 
to his work. Dow heard him calmly, and soon after, 



* Dow's Journal. 



96 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



while Hull was sending an appointment for him to the 
village, he dashed away on foot and reached it first, 
scattered his tracts, and was ready to preach before the 
messenger came.*^ There was much about his aspect 
and manner to arouse attention even at this time, though 
he grew much more eccentric in after-life. Elislia 
Ferryman, a Baptist preacher, heard him on one of his 
visits, and thus describes his appearance : " He wore an 
old half red overcoat^ with an Indian belt around his 
waist* He did not wear a hat, but had his head tied up 
with a handkerchief. Coming into the house, he sat 
down by the fireplace for a few minutes, and tlien all of 
a sudden jumped up, and cried out: 'What will this 
babbler say? Those that have turned the world up- 
side down are come hither also.' " This was his text, and 
his talk was much every way, for it appeared to me to 
run from Britain to Japan, and from the torrid to the 
frigid zone, f Yet this strange man was a man of no 
common intellect, and preached with real power. He 
was a great polemic. He had been brought up in New 
Eno'land, amono- the Calvinists, and as they were the 
only errorists, for so he regarded them, who had been 
much in his way, he never preached a sermon without 
attacking their views. He called them ALL part peo- 
ple. To relieve the church in Augusta from debt,:}: he 
published his chain, which is mainly directed against 
the Calvinists. It is a fine piece of homely reasoning, 
and evinces real power in argument. 

His habits were wildly eccentric. During this visit 
he came to a house just in time to escape a heavy storm. 
In the night, he says, felt uneasy, and my heart felt 



* Dow' s Journal. f Life of Perry man. :|: Journal. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



97 



turned upon the road." So he declared he must go, 
nor could any dissuasion keep him from doing so. 
Night as it was, raining as it had been, go he must, and 
go he did. His kind friend accompanied him till day- 
break and then returned. He visited some of the ap- 
pointments in Oglethorpe, and held a meeting at Pope's 
Chapel, Tigners, &c. He then returned to Augusta."^ 

On this tour Dow preached at Tigners, then in Ogle- 
thorpe, now in Clarke County. The founder of this 
church came out from Virginia early after the Revolu- 
tion and came to the frontier. When settlers beo-an to 
flock to the wilds his heart was stirred within him, and 
before a preacher had entej-ed the settlement he held 
meetings and organized a societ}^ From this society 
sprang Tigners Church, and from this good man has 
descended a large number of Methodists and several 
Methodist preachers. 

Dow often visited Georgia after this, and M^ent to the 
Natchez Country, on the Mississippi, as early as 1803. 
His appointments were given out from twelve months 
to two years ahead, and he always filled them. Adopt- 
ing as a rule in the beginning of this history that we 
should not introduce any anecdote, however piquant, 
we were not assured was authentic, we do not feel at 
libert}' to enliven our pages with manj^ of those incidents 
of Dow which are handed from mouth to mouth. He 
went to Louisville and met Dr. Coke. The last time] 
the Doctor had seen him v\^as in Dublin, Ireland. He 
said to him : " Brother Dow, the warning you gave to 
the people of Dublin had like to have proved true." 
The Governor of the State gave Dow a testimonial. The 



* Dow's Journal. 

5 



98 



HISTOKY OF METHODISM 



conference talked over his case, and it was decided to 
encourage him.'^ Afterwards his eccentricities brought 
him into disrepute wath the brethren, and he ti'avelled as 
a cosmopolite, preaching the doctrines of the Methodists 
and leaving those converted to choose their church con- 
nections for themselves. His visit to Cleoro^ia durina: 
this year 1802 had been of real service to the cause of 
Christ. At the Conference of 1803 the result of the 
year's work was reported. The number had largely 
increased, over 1,300 new members had been added 
during the year. 

The conference met at Camden a(>:ain the 6th of Jan- 
uar}^, 1803. It remained in session only tliree days. 
Stith Mead was again Presiding Elder of the Georgia 
District, and the old corps of preachers were again 
appointed to the various charges. Among the preacliers 
this year, for the first time in Georgia, is Lewis Myers. 
This w^as his fourth year in the ministry. 

Lewis Myers was a full-blooded German by descent, 
and he never lost his German accent, though he was 
an American by 1)irth, and wrote English like an 
Englishman. He was as decided and as conscientious 
as a German could be, and that is saying a great deal. 
He had decided to be a Christian, and he was one to the 
end, and he had determined to be an itinerant preacher, 
and so he w^as to the end. Strong himself, he had but 
little sympathy for the weak or vacillating. His 
remarkable common sense made him a leader on the 
conference floor, and with W. M. Kennedy he shared 
the full confidence of his brethren when judgment was 
demanded. He travelled all kinds of work, and always 



* Dow's Journal. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-loG5. 



99 



did well what he did at all. He worked for twent}^- 
eight years — one of the hardest workers the church has 
ever had in it. He travelled in South Carolina, North 
Carolina, and Georgia. He believed in Methodism, in 
the Methodism of his earliest love. He fought against 
everything opposed to it. Drunkenness, cock-fighting, 
duelling, were not less objects of attack than the theatre, 
the public show, the powdered head, or the frills and 
ruffles of the young ladies ; and none ever escaped him. 
When he was presiding elder on the Oconee District, a 
Methodist preacher, w^hom he designates as B. C, went 
to a scientific show, as it was called, in Sparta, where 
there were pupp)ets dancing. The delinquent had not 
begun his breakfast the next morning, and was at 
family prayers, when brother Myers came to bring him 
to account. The preacher, according to Myers' journal, 
evidenced the awfttl depravity of the human heart by 
defending his course. 

Mr. Monroe, then President of the United States, on 
a visit to Charleston, went to the theatre. Lewis Myers 
addressed him a letter from the Methodist parsonage, 
calling his attention to the sad example he was giving 
to the people."^ On the conference floor he was the 
censor. A young preacher, who had fallen captive to 
beauty and who had married, was sure to have Father 
Myers after him at confei'ence. " A young brudder," 
he said in a speech, " comes to us and wishes to breach. 
We dell him we will dry him a year. He goes out and 
does bretty well ; we dell him we will dry him again. 
Then he gomes to us and says, bredren, I must get mar- 
ried. W e say, no, brudder, go breach ; but he says, I 



*Myers' Journal in South Carolina Advocate, 



100 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



must get married, and marry he does ; it is sight enough 
to make angels weep.'' 

He had quite a spice of humor with all his stern- 
ness, and his odd speeches called out a smile from the 
most serious congregation. 

He came once to a church in Greene County, and 
after Saturday's preaching requested the people to stay 
to class, but instead of holding a class he gave them a 
talk to this effect : '^Bredren, I dinks some dings migiit 
be mended here. The clab-poards on the house are 
loose — you might nail them on and keep the rain out ; 
the weder-boarding is ripped off — -joii might put dem 
back. The men bite tobacco and spit on the floor — a 
very bad habit, bredren ; and altogedder things look 
shockling about here.""^ By this time the congregation 
were tittering, and Wm, H. C. Cone, then a 3'oung mm^ 
w^as so overcome by the old man's way that he had bent 
his head on the bench to conceal his merriment. "And 
you, young man, who has your head down on de bench, 
you will pray for us." The prayer, we may judge, was 
short. He was a rigid disciplinarian, and kept things 
up to the line wherever he went. Although he lived 
for many years after he went to Effingham in compara- 
tive retirement, the Church never had a firmer friend ; 
and few who marked liis close economy dreamed that 
the old Dutchman who worked so hard, traded so closel v, 
and lived so economically, was saving for the Church ; 
and it was only when his will was opened that it was 
seen that the widows, the orphans, and the friendless 
were the objects for whose welfare he was toiling so 
hard. Old Father Myers was indeed a peculiar man, 



* From W. I. Parks. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



101 



but not many have lived who had a stronger head and 
a nobler heart. He was sent this year with Josias Ran- 
dle on the Little River Circuit. Samuel Ansley was on 
the Oconee Circuit. He was a man of moderate gifts, 
but of deep piety, w^io, after travelling seveial years, 
located and then re-entered the work, and died a super- 
annuated preacher in the Georgia Conference, after 
having preached for over fifty years. 

There was again large increase in the membership. 
This year nearly 4,300 were reported in the society. 
From every quarter came up the same precious tidings. 
The Baptists and Presbyterians shared in these blessings. 
There were no other Christian bodies in this new State. 

As the South Carolina Conference was to meet this 
year in Augusta, and as Asbury was to preside, he came 
early in December. He preached in Augusta, visited 
Thomas Haynes, Gartrell, and Thomas Grant ; after 
preaching at White Oak, he rode home with Capt. Few, 
whose eldest son was serious. This then was the time 
of the first serious im]3ressions of that gifted man. 
Col. Iguatius Few, who, after having been lost in the 
wilds of infidelity, came to Christ in 1827, nearly twenty- 
five years after the time the good Bishop rode home to 
talk with him and prdj for him. He passed rapidly 
through Richmond, Columbia, Lincoln, Elbert, AVilkes, 
AVarren, and Hancock Counties. Although Asbury 
was near sixty years old, feeble and worn, yet he 
rode through all weathers, and preached every day. 
He came to Sparta a second time. They had a race 
course, but no church, so he was forced to preach at 
Lucas dwelling, where he had a full house ; passing 
down into Washington County, he made a journey 
through it to Louisville ; here he was entertained by a 



102 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



Mr. Flournoy, a new convert, whose wife, he says, was 
one of tiie respectables ; and then on to Augusta. 
Flournoy was a famous man, a man of violent passions, 
whose religious life did not continue long. He liad 
married a meuiber of the great Cobb family, whose 
saintliness of life would have made a beautiful story for 
the early age. She, amid many trials, lived the most con- 
secrated life and died a most triumphant death. She 
was the grandmother of KeVo H. J. Adams, of the N. G. 
conference. 

The conference met January 4, 1804. Dr. Coke was 
present with Asbury. One man alone lives who was 
present at that conference — Lovick Pierce ; he was but 
a boy from Barnwell, S. C, but even then a warm- 
hearted Methodist. 

It met at the house of Peter Cantalou, on Ellis 
Street.^ The boundaries of Georgia are again changed 
and the frontier-line moved farther back, calling for 
changes in the arrangement of the work. The stu- 
dent of church liistory, to clearly understand the work, 
must make himself acquainted with the physical and 
political changes which passed over the State, The 
settlements in Georgia were made in a somewhat 
peculiar way, and one part of the State was com- 
paratively old before another was settled. The first 
settlements were from the ocean to the Altamaha and 
Ogeechee. Tlien, in 1773, Sir James Wright bought 
from the Indians the country between the Ogeechee and 
the Oconee. Here, for ovei thirty years, was the 
boundary of the State. In 1802 a treaty was made for 
lands from the Oconee to the Apalachee, and now, ia 



*Asbury, Journal. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



103 



1804, the country lying between the Oconee and the 
Ocmulgee Wcis purchased. Georgia had until 1837 
always a frontier, and in the new purchase there was 
the features of a fresh settlement. The log-cabins of the 
older sections were now only removed from Wilkes, 
Warren, and Hancock, to the new counties of Jasper, 
Jones, and Morgan. Since the year 1Y93, when the 
feeble Georgia Conference was merged into the South 
Carolina, almost eleven years had gone. A great change 
had passed over the whole country — a change resulting 
from the invention of the cotton-gin. Previous to its 
invention, there w^as little hope of making fortunes in 
Georgia. The rice-planters on the coast of the Caro- 
linas and of Georgia, and the few indigo-] )lanters w^ho 
were left^ made something for export ; but, w^ith the 
exception of a few hogsheads of tobacco made on the 
fresh lands and shipped to Europe, there was nothing 
made in Georgia that was not for home use. Corn, 
wheat, cattle, pork, there was in great abundance ; but 
these could not be transported, and if sold made but a 
poor return ; a little cotton was made for home con- 
sumption. The lint was separated from the seed by 
the bus3^ lingej'S of the family ; but now Eli Whitney 
and Nathan Lyon about the same time brought out the 
machines so much needed. The lands were fresh ; the 
shipowners of New England States, about to lose the 
profitable slave trade, were hurrying cargoes of Afri- 
cans to Savannah and Charleston. The result of this 
was large immigration, and the rapid opening of large 
plantations. Good schools sprang up all over the older 
sections of the State. 

The habits of the rough pioneers were becoming 
gradually more gentle. When Methodism began her 



104 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



work, there were not five liiindred Christian people in 
the State ; now there were nearly 5,000 in the Methodist 
Church alone. 

The people were, many of them, still rude and uncul- 
tivated. Judge Longstreet, in his Georgia Scenes/' 
Gov. Gilmer in his " Georgians," and Judge Andrews 
do not present an exaggerated picture of those times. 
Asbury says of the state of things in 1803 that the 
great hinderance to the work of God in Georgia was 
Sabbath markets, rum, races, and rioting. " In those 
days," says Elisha Perryraan, an old Baptist, almost 
everybody was in the habit of drinking ; young and 
old, rich and poor, Christian and sinner, all would drink^ 
and many of them get drunk into the baig-ain.'^ The 
Methodist Church now covered the whole State. In 
its short history up to this time there had been two 
great revivals and one period of deep depression. 

l^ew territory is now to be opened. IS'^ew fields are 
to be laid out, and the same battle \^ith the hardships 
of the first days of a country is to be fought over 
again. 

The conference concluded its session without any- 
thing of special interest, and Mead again took chai'ge 
of his corps of evangelists, and went forth to his soul- 
cheering work. 

They were an earnest, gifted body of men, and the 
field was white to the harvest. The revival influence 
still continued, and there were over 600 additional 
members reported to the next conference. Mead, 
having done most excellent work, was now spending 
his last year in Georgia, but he was training a body of 
young men, who were to do the work he had begun, 
after he had left them. We liave no other particulars 



IN FLORIDA AND GEORGIA, 1785-1865. 



105 



than those which the minutes give, and a darkness as 
deep and as deplorable rests over the history of other 
churches. Jesse Mercer was in his strength. The 
sons of Abraham Marshall were still at work, and 
Cummings and Dokes were doing good service for the 
Presbyterians ; but while this we know, of more than 
this we are ignorant. 
5^ 



106 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



CHAPTER 
1805-1812. 

Conference of 1805— Lovick and Reddick Pierce— Joseph Tarpley 
—Sparta and Milledqevii.le Circuits— Apalachee Circuit— 
Lovick Pierce on his First Georgia Circuit— W. M, Kennedy— 
The Ohoopee Circuit — Asbury again in Georgia — Conference 
of 18U6 AT Sparta— Jesse Lee— First Society in Savannah- 
Sparta Camp-Meeting— Judge Stith— Mrs. Dr. Bird— James 
Russell — The Tombigbee Mission— Wm. Arnold — General Con- 
ference OF 1808— Jos. Travis — Bro. Bob Martin, or Shouting 
UNDER Difficulties— Annual Conference of 1808, at Liberty 
Chapel— Wm. McKendree— Wm. Capers— Lovick Pierce on 
his First District— Josias Randle— Hilliard Judge — Wm. 
Red wine— Robert L. Edwards— Osborn Rogers — Epps Tuck- 
er—John Collingsworth— Conference of 1809— John McVenn— 
Jno. S. Ford— Milledgeville a Station— W^hitman C. Hill — 
Conference of 1811— General Review. 

The Conference of 1805 met at Charleston, January 
Ist, Bishop Asbury presiding. 

The Bishop preached on " Walk in wisdom towards 
them which are without."^ 

He had a practical proof of the value of the injunc^ 
tion, for he was forbidden by the city authorities to 
liold prayer-meetings with the blacks before sunrise, 
and to continue services later than '9 o'clock at nio-ht. 
This was an order tyrannical enough, and inexcusable 
enough, but one which had resulted from Dr. Coke's 
course with reference to slavery. 

The Georgia work was now divided into two districts. 
The new territory was placed in the Oconee, and Samuel 



* Journal. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLOKIDA, 1785-1865. 



107 



Cowles was made presiding elder ; the older territory 
in the Ogeechee, and Josias Eandle was placed in charge. 
The Oconee District extended westward from the Ogee- 
chee to the Indian Nation, the Ogeechee from the 
Savannah to the Ogeechee River. 

At this conference, Eeddick and Lovick Pierce were 
admitted on trial ; Reddick w^as twenty -two, and Lovick 
not quite twenty years old. 

Reddick was sent as junior preacher on the Little 
River Circuit, Georgia ; Lovick on the Great Pedee, in 
South Carolina. 

There was a striking contrast between the two broth- 
ers. Reddick w^as vigorous in body as well as vigorous 
in mind. He was strong, brave, daring. He rather 
enjoyed than recoiled from perils. In boyhood, his 
brother says, he delighted in tales of Indian wars and 
weird stories of ghostly appearances. 

He cared little for refinement of culture, never aimed 
at polish, nor sought for elegance of manner or speech. 
Lie sought only for strong, clear arguments, for burning 
words, and for unction of soul. Lovick was, on the 
contrary, gentle as a woman, shrinking, sensitive, and 
timid. Llis desire for culture of the highest kind was 
intense, and his taste was for all the refinements of 
life. Reddick would have made a noble worker in 
granite, but Lovick w^ould have been Michael Angelo, 
and worked only in marble. Reddick was a great maUj 
but his greatness was to be know^n only by a few ; 
Lovick was destined to a renown as wide as the domain 
of Methodism. The two brothers had possessed no lit- 
erary advantages in the backwoods in which they were 
born ; but, full of lofty heroism and a sublime deter- 
mination to w^ork for Jesus, they come now to the 



108 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



conference for their first appointments. They were 
boj-n in Halifax County, in North Carolina, but were 
brought up in Barnwell District, S. C. Under the 
preaching of James Jenkins, they were at the same 
time awakened, and when Thomas Darley, the year 
afterwards, was preacher in charge of that circuit, they 
joined the society. Eeddick was sent to Little River 
this year, and the next to the Sparta Circuit. In 1807, 
he followed his younger brother on the Augusta sta- 
tion, and was then sent to Columbia, S. C. Colum- 
bia was at that time a small, but an important town ; 
it was the capital of the State, and the State University 
was there. The Methodists had a small chapel, and 
were few and humble. They afforded fine sport for the 
mischievous young bloods who were in the college there, 
and they made full use of their opportunities for mis- 
chief. After annoying the congregation in every way 
they could think of, one night they turned a live goose 
into the church, while the congregation were at prayer. 
Young Pierce reported the culprits to the chancellor. 
This officer calmly heard him, and promised that he 
should have a hearing before the faculty, and should 
have an opportunity to prove his case. The young men 
sent him a note that it would be at the peril of his life 
if he should appear at the campus on the day fixed for 
trial ; but on that day the intrepid young preacher was 
there. He stated his (*-ase. The young man selected 
by liis companions as their champion made a brave 
speech against Pope Pierce, as he called him, but the 
trustees and faculty ended the matter by notifying the 
students that any future molestation of the Methodists 



* From personal conversation with Reddick Pierce. 



m GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



109 



should be followed by prompt expulsion from college ; 
and the worshippers were no more disturbed. 

Keddick Pierce was a man of great power in the pul- 
pit. Dr. Lovick Pierce savs he had known scores to fall 
senseless as Eeddick preached. One daj he went to a 
Baptist church. An opportunity to join the Church 
was given, and one and another told an experience. The 
preacher then invited any brother who desired to do so 
to speak. Keddick rose, told his own heart's story, and 
began to exhort. The result was as usual : w^hen he 
exhorted, many fell, overwhelmed by their emotions. 

He was especially strong in the Calvinistic controversy 
of those days, and to the last scarcely ever preached a 
sermon without dealing some hard blows at that system 
of theology. The present generation, when there is so 
little of the hyper-Calvinism of seventy years ago, and 
'when religious controversy is at such discount, are not 
aware of the intense feelings of the tw^o parties at that 
time, and of the constant warfare waged. The young 
preachers studied the polemical books of AVesley and 
Fletcher, and each felt that he had not done his duty 
unless he had assailed what he believed the God-dishon- 
oring doctrine of an unconditional decree. Young Pierce 
located in 1812, and afterwards returned to the w^ork in 
1822, and in it he died. He w^as very deaf early in his 
life, and grew so perfectly so that he could only com- 
mune with his friends by the aid of writing. He was a 
very fine talker, and a man of most impressive appear- 
ance. His old age, when not visiting his children, was 
spent under the roof of his friend, Jacob Slowman, in 
Barnwell, S. C, 

The Bishop visited Georgia this year, but does not 
seem to have met with anything of special interest, as 



110 



fflSTORY OF METHODISM 



he makes no important record of it in his journal. The 
members in the chm-ch are about the same as in the year 
before, and the general revival interest had somewhat 
abated. 

Tiie conference met in Charleston in January, 1806. 
The number of circuits was increased, and for the first 
time the Sparta and Milledegville Circuits appear. 
Diyi'ded between the Apalachee, the Sparta and the 
Milledgeville Circuits was that fine country between the 
Oconee and the Ocmulgee, which had just been opened 
to settlement. It comprised large and fertile sections, 
and was rapidly peopled. Twiggs, Jones, Baldwin, Mor- 
gan and Jasper Counties were then the frontier counties. 
Samuel Cowles and Josias Eandle were the presiding 
elders. 

Joseph Tarpley was on the Apalachee Circuit. This 
was his second year in itinerancy. He was a man of 
fine capacity, and was very useful. He had a large 
frame, a fine face, and a strong, clear voice, which he 
managed with great skill.^ He was a pious man and 
a laborious one. After years of active labor in the 
ministry, he married a daughter of General Stewart, 
and located. He entered into mercantile business, but 
was unfortunate in it, and lost e^'erything except his 
religion. 

The Sparta Circuit appears for the first time. Al- 
though there had been regular preaching in the county 
of Hancock foi" several years preceding, the first Meth- 
odist church building in Sparta was erected this year. 
This supplied the people of the village with a place of 
worship until 1824, when a larger and finer church 



* Travis. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



Ill 



was bnilt."^ This building, mucli improved^ is still used. 
Philip Turner was the first class-leader. He was a 
Maryland Methodist, and, in connection with John 
Lucas, was the chief support of the church there in the 
early days. 

Lovick Pierce was sent to the new Apalachee Circuit 
with Joseph Tarpley. This circuit included Greene, 
Clarke, and Jackson. He was but little over twenty 
years old, and was timid as a fawn. His sensibilities 
were unusually acute, and his aspirations of the noblest 
and highest kind. He had an exalted idea of the respon- 
sibilities and of the lofty demands of his ministry, and 
a painful sense of his own deficiencies. His circuit 
threw him into the presence of people as highly culti- 
vated as any in Georgia. Hoj)e IIull, Gen. Stewart, 
Gen. Merriwether, Henry Pope, Henry Gilmer, John 
Crutchfield, and men of that class were among his hear- 
ers, and the new State University in his Circuit. He 
had been in the ministry only one year. He had to 
preach every day, and had no time for careful study ; but, 
as water from the mountain-top only waits its time to 
seek that height which is its birthright, so, with such a 
mind as his, circumstances might for a moment keep it 
depressed — but only for a moment ; rise it must, rise it 
w^ould. He was a born preacher, and he w^as in a school 
to make one. Cicero says in his De Oratore " that re- 
peated practice is worth more to an orator than all rules 
of art. This is eminently true of the pulpit, and he had 
to preach every day. To be thrown upon one's own 
resources has made many a man, and books have 
spoiled not a few who might have made them for them- 



* Dr. Pendleton, sketch. 



112 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



selves, but who learned to depend servilely on the minds 
of others. Lovick Pierce had few books but the Bible ; 
but, with the Bible and with a rich Chi-istian experience, 
what man is unfurnished. He began his Georgia min- 
istry this year a plain, untutoi'ed, but highly gifted 
boy. Pie never left the State for any length of time 
afterwards. A few appointments he had outside of it, 
but his home was always in it, save for one year. We 
have but to introduce him now. His history is largely 
our history — our history his history. For over seventy 
years the life of Georgia Methodism and of Lovick 
Pierce move on together. Two generations and more are 
gone since he came to Georgia in 1806. A few old 
men may remember, wheu tliey were children, to have 
heard the good and gifted young circuit-rider, who rode 
the Apalachee Circuit with Joseph Tarpley, preach won- 
derful sermons ; but they are few. He left his home 
in South Carolina to travel a circuit which led him to 
the very wigwam of the Indian, and without a teacher, 
to secure by constant diligence that knowledge for which 
he had such craving appetite. Hope Hull, whose criti- 
cism the young preacher so feared, was at Hull's Meet- 
ing-house to hear him, and as from beneath his great 
overhanging eyebrows, his piercing eye fell upon. 
Lovick Pierce, he saw a man who was to bless the 
Church, and he took him to his home and his heart. 
When Hull died, twelve years after this, young Dr. 
Pierce, then in the brightness of his fame, preached the 
funeral sermon of the old hero. 

Another young man who was to do good work for 
the church, principally in Carolina, came this year to 
Broad Eiver Circuit. This was W. M. Kennedy, the 
father of Dr. F. M. Kennedy, editor of the Southern 



m GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1TS5-1865. 



113 



Christian Advocate, He was short and stout, had 
a fine eye and a fine complexion. He was remarkable 
for his strong common sense and his deep piety. Full 
of genial humor and buoyancy, he was a favorite every- 
where, and his fine judgment made him a most valuable 
assistant to the Bishop as a presiding elder. He trav- 
elled only one year in Georgia at this period, and with 
exception of one term in Augusta, his life was spent in 
labor in Xorth and South Carolina, and to these States 
his history properly belongs. 

The faithful Handle is placed on the Oconee District 
again, and Britton Capel on the Ogeechee. Two new 
changes are made this year : the Ohoopee Circuit and 
the Savannali Station. 

To the west of Savannah, lying south of the Central 
Railway, is an immense area of land, which is known as 
the T7ire-Gras3 Country. . The lands are not fertile, and, 
till within a few years, being off all lines of popular 
travel, have been little visited. A stock-raising country, 
it is thinly inhabited even now ; but, seventy years ago, 
the stock-raisers in the wilds lived at long distances 
apart. There were no schools ; there were no churches. 
At this time perliaps there were three-fourths of the 
people who had never heard a sermon. To tliese 
pioneer settlements lying on the Ohoopee, the Alta- 
maha, the Ocmulgee, and the Oconee Elvers, including 
a dozen counties, and equal to a German duchy in size, 
Angus McDonald was sent as the first missionary. 
The preacher had his own circuit to make ; he had be- 
fore him a prospect gloomy enough to daunt any heart. 
The settlements were not, as they are in many sections, 
in groups ; but there were single houses, miles distant 
from any others. The paths through the wire-grass 



114 



HISTOBY OF METHODISM 



were only discovered by the blazes on the trees. The 
houses were simply of pine logs, with the roof^ b}^ no 
means water-tight, of clap-boards weighted down with 
poles. The people had no property save cows and 
sheep. There were neither wheat-fieldsj nor fioar-millsj 
and the corn was either made into hominy, or ground 
with a hand-mill into grits. The marriage-tie was dis- 
regarded ; the Sabbath was nnknown. This is a true, 
if not a flattering picture of the Wire-Grass Conntry 
seventy years ago, when the Methodists began their 
work in it. The Primitive Baptists have a stronghold 
in that section now, and probably were in the country 
then. McDonald does not seem to have had much suc- 
cess there, and the Ohoopee was dropped from the list 
of circuits at the next conference, and does not a23pear 
again for several years. 

Bishop Asbury came to Georgia in l^ovember^ reach- 
iiig Augusta on Satoi'day the loth. 

On Monday he rode out to the home of Thomas 
Haynes, and remained with him till Saturday. He 
made a compilation of the number of societies in 
Georgia, and found them to be one hundred and thirty. 
He estimated that during the year the Methodists 
preached to 130,000 different people. 

He went through Wilkes, Warren, Jefferson, and then 
back to Wilkes and to Petersburg, where he met Father 
Cummings and Mr. Dokes, Presbyterian miuisters, 
the first of which we find mention in upper Georgia. 
Then to see Judge Tait and Ralph Banks ; and on the 
15th he visited Hope Hull, and first visited the new 
village of Athens. At Hull's house he gave a lecture. 
On Sunday he preached at Pope's Chapel, and was assis- 
ted in the other services by Hope Hull, Stith Mead, 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



115 



and Moses Matliews ; then to Gen. Stewart, and throngli 
Greene County to Sparta, the seat of tlie conference. 

The conference met in Sparta late in December, 
1806. It held its sessions in the house of John Lucas. 
Although Sparta was the extreme western appointment 
in the conference, yet tlie preacliers came from the sea- 
board of JN'orth Carolina to attend tlie session. 

George Dougherty was tliere. This village Iiad been 
in his second circuit seven years before, and now he 
came to it a dying man. Tie was far gone in consump- 
tion. There had evidently been some cowardice shown 
in times of pestilence, and Dougherty introduced a res- 
olution, which was passed, that if a Methodist preacher 
deserted his post in times like that, he should travel no 
more among us. 

Asbury brought before tl^e conference his favorite 
scheme for a delegated general conference, which should 
elect another Bishop. This frontier conference was very 
much in favor of it, but it was not pleasing to the more 
powerful central conferences, and was not adopted. 

At this session the plan for a benevolent society — the 
Society of Special Relief — was adopted at Asbury 's 
suggestion, and the first collection, amounting to $37.00, 
was raised. 

Jesse Lee, who felt a deep interest in Georgia, solici- 
ted an appointment in the State this year, and was sent 
nominally in charge of the Sparta Circuit, but with the 
evident design, as two others besides him were sent, 
of leaving him free to go whither he would. He 
left the Virginia Conference at Newbern, X. C, and 
came to Augusta, where he was the guest of Asaph 
Watterman, and in that city he preached three times on 
Sunday. He then went to Savannah, and organized, 



116 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



after preaching, the first Methodist society in that city."^ 
He was here the guest of John Millen, a Presbyterian, 
who was a kind friend of the Methodists. He then went 
to St. Mary's, spending a niglit w^ith the Hon. Josepli 
Clay, w^ho was one of the earliest and most useful Bap- 
tist preachers in that portion of the State. He was 
visited at St. Mary's by Abrani Bessent, whom he had 
known in North Carolina, and after visiting Jefferson- 
ton he preached in St. Mary's. Here he met Angus 
McDonald, and. went with him over into Florida, then a 
province of Spain, and kneeling on the soil forbidden 
to Protestants, he prayed earnestly that the way might 
be opened to the Gospel. He came to Savannah again, 
and in July was in the new county of Baldwin. On the 
29th of July there was a great camp-meeting three 
miles south of Sparta. One hundred and seventy-six 
tents were pitched. Twenty-seven preachers were 
present, and above four thousand five hundred hearers. f 
Fourteen sermons were preached at the stand, and nine 
exhortations delivered. He then went into the new 
country, w^iich was just now divided out by lottery, and 
to Milledgeville, where Brother Durnell gave him a 
home. He preached the funeral sermon of Mr. Drane, 
in the court-house, and on Monday was called to see 
Judge Stith, who w^as very ill. Judge Stith had been, a 
deist, but in the great revival of the year before had 
become a Methodist. Jesse Lee found him dying, and 
sat by his bedside and sang "Happy soul, thy days are 
ended." The Judge kept his senses to the last, and 
Jesse Lee preached his funeral sermon in the house of 
Dr. Thomas Bird. This Dr. Bird was from Delaware. 



* Life of J esse Lee. f Lee's Life. Dow also mentions the meeting. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



117 



He had married a Miss Williamson, from Hancock. 
She belonged to one of the most aristocratic and wealthy 
families of the State, but joined the Methodists, then so 
much despised. She was a beautiful Christian charac- 
ter, and though her husband was not in the Cliurch with 
her, yet he gave her every encouragement m her Chris- 
tian life. One day, at a fashionable dinner at his house, 
a number of persons were present, and the peculiarities 
of the Methodists were discussed, wuth expressions of 
surprise that one like Mrs. Bird should adhere to such a 
sect, when one of the frivolous ladies at the table said : 
'^'Dr. J3ird, just think of Mrs. Bird shouting! Why, 
what would you do?" The Doctor laughed merrily, 
and said: "Well, I reckon I should have to pour a 
bucket of water over her." The gentle young wife 
blushed deeply, and then the tears began to roll down 
her face. The thoughtless husband rose from his seat 
and went to her and kissed her tenderly, saying : " For- 
give me, darling ; I did not intend to hurt your feelings, 
and you shall shout just when you please." ^ 

She was the mother of Mrs. Troutman, formerly Mrs. 
Lamar, and the grandmother of the Hon. L. Q. C. La- 
mar, who has foUow^ed so closely in the footsteps of his 
mother and grandmother. This year there was much 
sickness in Milledgeville, and Jesse Lee was constantly 
engaged in works of mercy. He left Georgia in De- 
cember, having spent nearly one year in his last visit 
to it.f 

On the Sparta Circuit with Jesse Lee was a young 
man who was to win for himself an undying name. 
This was James Eussell, perhaps the most remarkable 



* From her daughter, Mrs. Troufcman. f Minton Thrift's Life of Lee. 



118 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



native orator Southern Methodism has produced. What 
Patrick lienry was on the hustings, and Pinckney at the 
bar, James Eiissell was in the pulpit. On the same 
day with Lovick Pierce he was received on trial into 
the conference. He had now travelled two years in 
l*[orth and South Carolina. He was of medinm height, 
symmetrical in form, with a clear blue eye, a large 
mouth, and a well-shaped head."^ In his sixteenth year 
he was converted. Pie felt he ought to exhort, but the 
preacher even in those days thought him too ignorant. 
He, however, permitted him to try, and then gave him 
license. He thought he ought to preach, but the Quar- 
terly Conference, even in those days, thought him in- 
competent, because he could barely read ; but at last 
entreaty prevailed, and he was licensed and recom- 
mended to the Annual Conference. He could not read 
Avell. He knew Christ, and had Christ's love in his 
heart, and a zeal burning like lire to do good, and 
thus furnished he w^ent forth to his work. With his 
spelling-book with him, he began his career as a 
pi'eacher in the mountains of North Carolina. The 
children taught him to read welL He pirayed, and 
studied, and preached, and souls were awakened and 
converted under his ministry ; and now, much im- 
proved and still improving^ he came to Georgia. His 
fame was not like the slow dawning of a northern 
sun ; but as, with the sun in the tropics, the gray 
streaks of the dawn are but seen before they are lost 
in the glory of the day, so with him : in less than five 
years from the time he began to travel, the land rang 
vvdth the story of his eloquence. He was rarely and 



* Dr. L. Pierce. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



119 



wonderfully gifted. His logic was the logic of the 
men to whom he preached — clear and convincing; his 
illustrations especially brilliant and impressive, his 
emotional powers of the highest order, his imagination 
glowing. 

Plain men, without high culture themselves, value 
metal more than they do polish, and as yet the cold ele- 
gance which chastely arrays commonplace thought was 
not placed bfore the blazing fire of genius. He might 
have offended ears fastidious, and would have had no 
attraction for those whose idea of preaching is that it 
should be ''faultily faultless, icily cold, splendidly 
null," but not so to those who heard him then. Camp- 
meetings were in their prime ; thousands flocked to 
them, and James Hussell was in his glory before a 
camp-meeting audience. With God's blue sky for his 
frescoed ceilings with Grod's green earth for his carpeted 
floor, with rolling song from a thousand happy lips for 
his grand organ, he had everything to inspire him. 
The very presence of evil only aroused him to grander 
deeds. In this conflict he was no trained swordsman 
with a rapier, but a giant with a mace, and hundreds 
fell beneath his blows. 

There was an addition of 600 reported at the con- 
ference which met in Charleston, December 28, 1807, 
and began its business session on the first of January. 

The appointments were made, and it may be ques- 
tioned whether Georgia ever had, man for man, an abler 
body of preachers than came to her service in 1807. 
There was not more than a score, but there was not an 
inferior man among them. Handle and Capel were on 
the districts a^ain. The circuits continued as they 
were, save that the Washington (County) Circuit was 



120 HISTORY OF METHODISM 

■ (' 

formed. This must not be confounded with the Wash- 
ington Circuit, which w^as in the upper part of the 
State, and so called from its central town. At this con- 
ference the first missionary was sent to the Tombigbee 
County, in Alabama, of which w^e hereafter give an 
account. James Kussell took charge of the large and 
important Apalachee Circuit, while Wm, Arnold and 
Jos. Travis w^ere on the Sparta. Wm. Arnold was born 
in Randolph County, N. C, in 1786, and died in Eaton- 
ton, Ga., in 1860, in his seventy-fifth year. He joined the 
South Carolina Conference in his twenty-second year. 
He travelled a short time, and then retired, and re- 
mained out of the travelling connection until 1823, 
when he returned to it to leave it no more till his death. 
He was an etiicient worker for many years. Few men 
have been more wddely known in Georgia, and perhaps 
no man has been better loved by those who knew him. 
He was a gifted man, gentle as a girl in his manners ; 
fervid, affectionate, and full of spiritual power in the 
pulpit ; he w^as a poet by nature, and his sermons were 
richly ornamented by the choicest gems of Wesley's 
verse. He came as near to filling the beautiful picture 
of Goldsmith's village pastor as if the poet had drawn 
of him a faithful portrait. He was noted for his deep 
piety, and the sweet severity of his old age was a joy 
to all. He was a faithful presiding elder for sixteen 
years, and travelled several of the most important cir- 
cuits in the State. His last sermon before his brethren 
at conference was in Columbus, in 1858. He preached 
with great unction, and as usual became very happy, 
as he spoke of the rest that awaited the w^eary pilgrim 
beyond the river. His soft blue eyes, his long, silvery 
hair, his clear, sweet voice, and the heavenly look of the 



m GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



121 



old saint, were a sermon in themselves. We shall see 
him again and often. 

In Maj^ of this year the last Oeneral Convention or 
conference of Methodist preachers met. The next 
assembly was one of delegates elected. The first 
motion for a delegated conference was from the South 
Carolina Conference, and was made by James Tolleson, 
in 1800. The next originated with Bishop Asbnry, 
bnt, through the influence of Jesse Lee and others from 
the central conferences, was defeated before the annual 
meetings ; but at this general conference the plan for a 
delegated body was adopted. This conference was a 
large one, but the figures indicate the inequality of the 
representation : New York had nineteen delegates, Balti- 
more thirty-five, Philadelphia thirty-two, and South 
Carolina only eleven. 

Dr. Coke was not present, and Bishop Asbury pre- 
sided. 

There are evidences presented by the journal of 
a jealousy existing between the annual and the general 
conferences, like to that between the State and K^ational 
governments, in which Jesse Lee took the side of the 
annual conference. After deciding upon a delegated 
general confei'ence, a conmiittee of two members from 
each conference was selected to draw such rules as they 
might think best for the regulation of the general con- 
ference ; from this committee emanated the famousi 
chapter known as the constitution of the corporate 
church. The committee consisted of Ezekiel Cooper, 
John Wilson, Pickering, Soule, McKendree, Burke, 
Phoebus, and Randle. The question which has been 
before so many general conferences, and about which 
there has been such difference of opinion — as to how 
6 



122 



HISTOKY OF METHODISM 



many Bishops there should be — was discussed. Ezekiel 
Cooper, a progressive from New York, moved that there 
should be seven. Tliis would have been a Bishop to 
each conference. Stephen George Koszel moved that 
one be selected, and this was done by electing AVm. 
McKendree on the first ballot. 

At this conference Ezekiel Cooper and Joshua Wells 
introduced a resolution which was a source of conten- 
tion, sharp and bitter, till 1820, when it was carried, and 
the strife only ended when it was repealed in 1828- 
It was to have the presiding elders elected. It received 
a respectable vote at this conference, having fifty-two 
votes in its favor, and only seventy-three against it."^ 

After electing John Wilson and Daniel Ilitt as book 
agents to succeed Ezekiel Cooper, who declined re-elec- 
tion, the conference adjourned to meet in New York 
in 1812. We return to the Georo-ia work. 

o 

Abda Christian appears on the minutes appointed to 
the Sparta Circuit. He, however, exchanged with 
Joseph Travis, who had been appointed to the Broad 
Eiver. Travis w^as a Yirginian, and was converted in 
Harrisonburg. He had removed to South Carolina, 
had been licensed to preach, joined the conference, and 
had now travelled one year in South Carolina. He 
was a man of good education for those times, and was 
really a gifted preacher. He travelled for some years, 
then retired, and again re-entered the work, and we 
shall in coming years see hiirx on a Georgia district, 
and on several stations. He was a ready writer, and 
we are indebted to his autobiography for much that has 
given interest to these pages.f 



* General Conference Journal. f Travis's Autobiography. 



m GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



123 



During this year on the Sparta Circuit there was an 
ilhistration of faithfiihiess under all our circumstances, 
which is worth preserving. Travis tells the story : 

" Brother Bob Martin was one of the most devoted 
, and consistent members of the Church on the Sparta 
Circuit, but violated the impracticable church rule on 
slavery, and was expelled from the society. lie con- 
tinued, however, to go to church, and to get happj^ and 
shout as usual. Quarterly meeting came, and by the 
law of the church he was excluded from the love-feast. 
So he crept under the meeting-house. While the ser- 
vice was going on, he became so happy that he began 
to shout as usual. The presiding elder knew his voice, 
and ordered the puncheon to be lifted, and Brother 
Martin to be admitted." 

Travis reports a pleasant year on this circuit, and 
mentions several among the members of the Church in 
Sparta then, whose descendants are members there 
now. 

There was considerable increase in membership dur- 
mg the year. The larger circuits were nearly all 
doubled in membership. The conference was to meet 
this year at Bush's, in Greene County, near old Liberty 
Chapel, and Asbury came, on his way to it, to Augusta 
on the 18th December.^ He complains of his flesh 
sinking under labor, and no wonder. Since he last 
visited Georgia, he had travelled over every State in the 
Union, over mountains and through wild forests, in rain 
and snow and cold winds, and under burning suns. lie 
had never been a strong man, and he was now near sixty 
years old. It was not less cruel, because unintentional, 



* Journal. 



124 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



that all this labor was required of him. He had borne 
the burden alone for twenty-five years. True, Coke and 
Whatcoat were his nominal colleagues, but they were 
only such in name. Jesse Lee was the only one who 
had lifted a finger's weight from his shoulders ; but now 
he was to have efiicient aid, for Wm. McKendree was 
to be his associate. The old gray so often mentioned 
by Asbury is gone, and in a thirty-dollar chaise the 
two Bishops enter Augusta. The good news of 
victory greets their ears, and their hearts are happy, al- 
though, Asbury says, their purses wei*e light. They 
passed through Warren County to Sparta, and thence 
to Bush's, where the conference was to be held. Wm. 
McKendree had never been in Georgia before. He was 
now fifty-one years old, and for twenty years he had been 
a travelling preacher. During that time he had travelled 
over a larger area of country than any man in the con- 
nection, except Bishop Asbury."^ In the mountains of 
North Carolina, in Virginia, in the wilds of Kentucky 
and Tennessee, along the banks of the Yadkin, the 
Greenbrier, the Ohio, the Cumberland, the Miami, and 
the Wabash, he had gone to organize circuits and to 
send preachers. The adventurous settler had scarce 
cleared a space for his cabin, before he had found Wm. 
McKendree or some one he had sent to preach to him. 
His grand labors in the West will leave their blessings 
there forever. After twelve years of exile in these 
wilds, he went to the General Conference in Baltimore. 
Not many that were present had ever seen him or heard 
him. In those days there were no religious journals, 
and the conference was in comparative ignorance of 



* Paine' s Life of McKendree. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



125 



McKendree and his work. When he came to Baltimore 
from the far West, so plainly apparelled, thej knew 
him only as one whose life had been one of hardship 
and danger. They now found him a cultivated Vir- 
ginia gentleman, and when he was placed on the most 
important committee, they found him a man of most re- 
markable judgment and sagacity ; and when he arose on 
Sunday morning to preach, and the burst of eloquence 
which had swept the congregations of frontiersmen fell 
with irresistible })ower upon the ears of the city cougre- 
gatioD, they found him to be a preacher of might, and he 
was at once cliosen, before the ballot was had, for Bishop. 
It was a choice wisely made, for he had had much to 
do with making the laws he must execute, and this 
knowledge of what the convention designed to do stood 
him in wod service when he refused to execute the un- 
constitutional enactment of a delegated general con- 
ference twelve years after this. 

McKendree was almost a matchless man. He was 
symmetry itself. Lee w^as like a great live-oak of the 
southern forests, which, rich in its w^ealth of shade and 
strength of body, has yet many a crooked bough — he 
w^as always great and often odd. Asbury was most 
remarkable in many ways ; but he could be thrown off 
his balance, and be as petulant before his conferences 
as a feeble but fond father is before his family. Coke, 
learned as he was and good as he w-as, was a very un- 
safe counsellor ; but McKendree had no crooks, no oddi- 
ties. He was great in the field and the cabinet ; he 
was equal to the demand as a preacher, as a legislator, 
and as a presiding and 'executive officer; for dignity^ 
learning, eloquence, discretion, zeal, courage, devotion 
and self-denial, all combined, we find no man of his time 



126 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



wlio was the peer of Wm. McKeiidree. He came to the 
South Carolina Conference on this, his first visit, and 
reached the place of its session, at Bash's, December 
26, 1808. The conference was in session at Mr. Bush's 
house, while the camp-meeting services went on at the 
old Liberty Camp-ground. Two missionaries were 
selected for the Tombigbee, and two to travel and or- 
ganize circuits between the Ashley and Savannah, and 
Cooper and Santee Rivers. The Bishops say the oppor- 
tunities for doing good are glorious. 

At this session the recommendation of AVm. Capers 
was presented to the conference. He belonged to one 
of the Huguenot families in South Carolina, was the 
son of an educated and wealthy planter, and was him- 
self from the South Carolina College. He had come 
with his heart full of zeal, to take his place on a cir- 
cuit. Lewis Myers, the strict constructionist, opposed 
his admission, since he lacked one month of having 
completed his probation ; but the conference yielded to 
the Bishop's wish, and Wm. Capers was admitted 
on trial into the South Carolina Conference, December, 
1808, at Bush's, in Greene County, Georgia.^ He thus 
began a ministry which, for nearly fifty years, was a 
benediction to the world. He was often in Georgia as 
a stationed preacher, and made his home in Oxford 
w^lien he was secretary of the mission board. In con- 
nection with Stephen Olin, he was editor of the first 
Methodist weekly in America. He was gifted as few 
men have been. His brain w^as of the finest texture ; 
he was fervid, chaste, original in preaching. Li private 
life, the old Huguenot blood, of which he was justly 



* Wightman's Life of Capers. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



127 



proud, and the elegant training of his early life^ were 
shown in Iiis perfect polish of manner. He was a front 
man in church councils, and the district conference, 
now such a power, originated with him. His piety was 
as saintly as that of Thomas a Kempis, and his life 
vastly more useful. We shall not lose sight of him 
while this history progresses. 

Young Lovick Pierce had not let any hour pass by 
him unimproved in these two years of station life in 
Columbia and Augusta, and had advanced so rapidly 
that the Bishop called him from South Carolina to take 
charge of the Oconee Districts, which had been enlarged 
by the addition of two circuits, the Ocmulgee and Al- 
co\d. This office, always an important one, was im- 
mensely so when the Church was in its formative state, 
when the presiding elder was not only to see that the 
points seized were held, but when he was to select the 
new positions which it was imjDortant to man. No one 
so young as Lovick Pierce had been before selected for 
this office in America. He was not twenty-four years 
old, and had been just ordained an elder. That he did 
his work well, we know ; but what he did, alas ! we 
cannot tell. Always disposed to say and write little 
about his deeds, he had deferred any full account of his 
early life to his old age ; and after he had written it out, 
it was lost during the war, and the detailed incidents of 
these early and important years must be forever untold. 

The Ocmulgee, one of the new circuits, was on the 
river of that name. This was then the western line of 
the settlements ; the Creek Nation was beyond. The 
Milledgeville Circuit included that section of the new 
territory on the western banks of the Oconee, and the 
Ocmulgee Circuit joining it extended its borders to 



128 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



the boniidary of the white settlements on the south 
and west. It inchided parts of Jones, Twiggs, Wil- 
kinson, going down as far as Pulaski and Telfair. 
The Alcovi, including parts of Morgan, Putnam, 
Jasper, joined the Ocmulgee on the north Though all 
the people of the State were not as yet reached by the 
Methodist preacher, still he was in every section of the 
country. The work was at least outlined. The Ohoo- 
pee Circuit now reappeared as a part of his district, 
and James Norton, a man of fine parts, was sent to 
this difficult field. Angus McDonald had been able to 
do little or nothing there. Norton wTtS more success- 
ful, and reports as the result of liis years' work, over 
100 members. The district of the young elder in- 
cludes in it all the features of Georgia society. In 
the upper part of the district, among his old friends, he 
will find people as refined and cultivated as any in the 
State. Then, in the new counties of Jones, Wilkinson, 
and Twiggs, the sturdy, pushing cotton-planter, who 
has brought his slaves and his family to the rich new 
land, and then through long stretches of thinly-peopled 
pine woods, where there is the v/ant of all the cultiva- 
tion and refinement, and oftentimes of even the civili- 
zation of life. Thi ough these wilds he made his way to 
the sea-coast, where the elegant hospitality of the Sea • 
Island rice-planter made some amends for the hard- 
ships of the way. All this immense area of country 
w^as to be travelled over, if possible, four times a j^ear. 
From the Apalachee to the St. Mary's, from the Indian 
frontier in Clarke County to the Floi'ida line, is the 
country in which the young presiding elder, scarce 
twenty-four years old, was to find his field of labor. 
His duty tore him from pleasant homes and pleasant 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



129 



people ; it tore liini especially from the books he loved 
so well ; it entailed a labor upon him his feeble frame 
was illy able to bear, but he bravely and unmurmur- 
ingly went about it. 

Josias Randle, whose districts Lovick Pierce now 
takes, retires to private life, and returns to the itiner- 
ancy no more. He came from Virginia to Georgia in 
1793, and had never left the State. He iiad done a 
great deal of very hard labor, and had done it well. 
Once he had been driven to location ; he had then 
returned to the work again. He now, however, retires 
to come back no more. He removed soon after to Illi- 
nois, then a territory, and occupied a high place among 
the people there, doing much for the Church, as well as 
much for the territory. In 182^1: he was taken with 
severe cold, which resulted in a throat attack, from 
which he died. Pie passed away in triumph. He was 
a true friend of Georo;ia, and his name ouo-ht to be 
held in precious memory. 

New laborers come to the field, but they are all 
young men. 

James Russell now was sent on the Little River Cir- 
cuit. This embraced the heart of AVilkes County, then 
including the territory of two or three modern counties. 
This country was not only thickly settled, but the popula- 
tion was of the best kind. It had now been occupied 
by the whites for nearly thirty years, and having been 
very fertile and healthy, had attracted a body of the 
best Virginia and North Carolina people into it. Among 
the Virginia people there was a colony of well-to-do 
Virginians, who had settled up and down the Broad and 



* Methodist Magazine^ 1825. 

6^ 



130 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



Little Rivers. Among these people Methodism, twenty 
years before, had made some conquests: David Merri- 
wether, John Marks, the family of Gov. Mathews, John 
Crntchlield, Ralph Banks, and others, had long been 
Methodists ; but there were large families of these Vir- 
ginians who were without any connection with the 
Church. When they left Virginia they were many of 
them nominal adherents of the Church of England ; 
after the Revolution they removed to Georgia. There 
were no parishes or parish clergymen. They were thus 
without any religious care. They were in good circum- 
stances; they were pleasure- loving, sociable, and, as far 
as mere social morality was concerned, were high-toned 
and honorable. To dance, to feast, to visit, to talk poli- 
tics, to hate Tories, to open new plantations, had engaged 
them and their children for many years. The fact that 
the Methodists were Virginians, that some of the most 
influential Broad River famihes were already of them, 
that old Virginia hospitality led them to have the 
preachei's with them at their homes, had its influence in 
brino-ino; them nearer the Church. In 1809 there was 
a sweeping revival among them. The father of Gov. 
Gilmer was converted and joined the Church during 
that meeting. lie w^as a well-to-do Virginia planter, 
descended from a distinguished Virginia family, and 
one which afterwards gave two governors to the South- 
Brn States. Micagah McGhee, another very influential 
man, who had lived to very mature years without re- 
ligion, joined the Church at that time ; the princely 
Edmund McGhee of Mississippi, Miles McGhee of the 
same State, and many of that name in Georgia, are de- 
scendants of his family. Thomas Grant, of whom we 
have given a sketch in one of the early chapters, writes 



IN GEORGrIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



131 



in his journal that the work was tremendous in power; 
and Gov. Gibner, in his " Georgians," tells of the won- 
derful work which swept the Broad River settlements. 
L. Q. C. De Yamperts, in his sketch of Russell, says, 
attended by a corps of evangelists, he swept like a 
conqueror from neighborhood to neighborhood. Dr. 
Pierce, a participant in the work, says it swept infidelity 
from that section. 

Britton Capel was on the Ogeechee District, Hilliard 
Judge and Wm. Redwine were on the Apalachee Cir- 
cuit. Redwine only travelled one year, and located to 
do useful work as a local preacher for many years. He 
was a man of tremendous muscular power, and was said 
by Judge Clayton to have had one of the most remark- 
able minds he had ever known. He was at this time 
totally without culture. He had been brought up in the 
backwoods, and had never seen anything of elegant life, 
nor mingled with people of education. Dr. Fierce says 
that this year, at a meeting in Oglethorpe, he called 
upon Redwine to exhort after him. Redwine arose and 
announced a text : " Behold, ye despisers, and wonder 
and perish." The first of the despisers was the deist. 

He stands," says the preacher, " with his legs as wide 
apart as if he was the Empire of France, and he won't 
hear any man preach who can't speak romatically and 
explay oratory." The feelings of his presiding elder 
can be imagined. 

Tie went to the house of Brother Williamson, in Han- 
cock. Brother Williamson was well to do, and had his 
home somewhat elegantly furnished for those times. 
Brother Redwine noticed that Brother Williamson's 



* Dr. Pierce. 



132 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



children called him Pa, instead of Daddy, or Pappy; 
that the plates were upside down on the table, and that 
Brother Williamson wore susjjenders. He was dis- 
tressed at these signs of worldliness, and went into the 
woods to pray. Here he fell asleep. The sun was set- 
ting. Brother Williamson had come to the same retreat 
for his evening devotion, and his cup overflowed that 
evening, and he began to shout. This awoke Brother 
Redwine, and looking up, he saw his happy brother. 
Rushing to him he cried, Pa or no Pa, plates or no 
plates, galluses to your elbows or not, you've got reli- 
gion, my brother." 

He had an accident to befall him, in which his foot 
was injured, and a s'evere inflammation set in, which 
imperilled his life. The doctor told him he feared he 
would die of lockjaw. What's that?'' said Redwine, 
Why, you will not be able to eat or talk, and so must 
die." 

" No, that I won't," said Red wine. I'll die shouting 
glory to God," and so he did, but not then. He was 
one of those undrilled, unpolished soldiers of Christ 
who knew better how to fight in the field to which he 
was called, than if he had been trained in the best 
schools of theology. 

A jpreacher having been horsewhipped by a wealthy 
ruffian, it fell to Red wine's part to meet the man who 
did the dastardly deed. 

^' So 3'ou are the man that horsewhipped Brother G.," 
said Red wine. 

Yes, sir ; and suppose I should try to horsewhip 
you, what then ? " 

Why, 3"ou'd be the worst-whipped man you ever saw 
in ten minutes," said the preacher. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



133 



The coward knew the preacher could and would do 
as he said, and he let him alone."^ 

Kobert L. Edwards entered the travelling connection 
in 1807, and w^s placed in charge of the Alcovi Cir- 
cuit in 1809. It was a new circuit, whose boundaries 
we have given. Edwards was a young man, but a 
fine worker. He travelled only four years, and then 
located for four, returned to the work, and continued in 
it till his death in 1850, having travelled regularly forty- 
three years. He was really a remarkable man, famous 
for his readiness in preaching, and for his revival power. 
Wherever he went, awakening followed. His life was 
useful, and his death serene. His success on the new 
frontier circuit was considerable, since he reports 486 
members in it. Edwards had great fondness for new 
fields. He solicited an appointment late in life, to a 
neglected settlement on Broad River, and succeeded in 
one year in raising quite a church in it, sufticiently 
nunjerous to call for a circuit preacher. 

The old preachers, always fond of a harmless and 
merry story, used to tell of the old man an incident, 
that, while amusing, is so trifling, that we have hesitated 
to insert it. 

He was very fond of good coffee, and he was often 
w^here it was not to be found. He met Bishop An- 
drew, who was passing through his circuit. They were 
going to dine at the house of an old lady whose coffee 
lost in quality what it made up in quantity. He con- 
cluded that he would secure a refreshing cup for him- 
self while he saw to the Bishop's w^elfare. He rode 
ahead to the house, and said to the good sister : 



* Dr. Pierce. 



134 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



" Sister, Bishop Andrew is going to dine with you, 
and he is specially fond of strong coffee.^' 

Dinner came. Inhere were two Goffee~j?ot8 on the 
table. The good lady poured out for the Bishop a cup, 
rich, amber-colored, strong. Then sweetly turning 
to Brother Edwards, said, " Well, Brother Edwards, 
loe do not like ours so strong." The preacher had his 
coffee poor, but the joke on him was rich, and he en- 
joyed it. 

Osborn Rogers was on the Broad River Circuit this 
year. He was from Hancock County, and had been 
travelling since 1807. He was a man of line personal 
appearance, excellent preaching capacity, and very 
deep piety. He located in 1814, and lived a useful 
local preacher in Hancock County until after the settle- 
ment of Monroe County, w^ien, with a colony of his 
neighbors, he moved to this new purchase and settled 
not far from Culloden. Here, in connection with his 
other Methodist brethren, he built a church which was 
known as Rogers Church, and which is still an appoint- 
ment in the Culloden Circuit. "When his boys grew 
towards manhood, he removed to Oxford, to be near 
Emory College, and here he spent his remaining days. 
He was a man of purest character, beloved by all who 
kneAV him. He was permitted to live long, surrounded 
by many friends and in much temporal comfort, and 
his days were brightened by the companionship of one 
of the purest and holiest of waives. He was permitted 
to see the Church for whose welfare his early labors had 
been spent, second to no other in influence or members 
in the country. He gradually withdrew from all 
worldly business, and spent his last daj^s in the sweet 
seclusion of Oxford, happy in the enjoyment of its 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



135 



religious privileges, and in the association with many 
of his old ministerial friends and associates. 
^,^^"^pps Tucker was on the Warren Circuit this year. 
He was iiow^ an elder, and had travelled extensively. 
He was a man of good parts, and of great zeal ; after 
travelling for some years he located, and settled in 
Elbert County, He was a member of the quarterly 
conference to which James O. Andrew applied for 
license to preach. The brethren were not all in favor 
of granting it, but Bro. Tucker's influence was sufficient 
to secure the pei-mission, and the future Bishop went 
forth duly equipped, for his great work.*^ 

After the organization of the Methodist Protestant 
Church, he united with that body, and finally entered 
the Congregational Methodist Church, in which commu- 
nion he died. He bore a fine Christian character, and 
was a man of extensive influence. Epps Tucker, for- 
merly editor of the Congregationalist of Alabama, from 
whom we have gatliered these facts, is his grandson. ^ 

John Collingsworth came to Georgia this year. He 
was a Virginian by birth, and at this time about twenty- 
five years old. He had entered the conference in 1807, 
and after travelling t^YO circuits in North Carolina came 
to Georgia. He remained in the conference for some 
years, then located, from feeble health ; but as soon as 
his strength allowed, he re-entered the work. He 
spent a few more years in active work, and then died 
at his home in Putnam County, the 4th September, 
1834. 

He was a man of great firmness of character and 
of great individuality. He made no compromise with 



* Epps Tucker, Jr. 



136 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



the world, and was a very Elijah in the sternness of his 
rebuke. He was noted for his plainness of living and 
his untiring industry. Josiah Flourno}^, of whom Ave 
shall speak hereafter, so admired the faithful, indepen- 
dent old preacher, who was his friend and neighbor, 
that, on founding and endowing a manual labor school 
in Talbot County, he named it in his honor, Collings- 
worth Institute. As he grew in years he grew sterner, 
and could not tolerate anything that looked like extra- 
vagance or worldly pomp."^ 

Rings, ruffles, fashionable bonnets, or dress-coats were 
never spared. Prof. Pendleton gives some personal 
recollections of him which illustrate his character. 

"He lived," says Dr. P., "near Post Oak Meeting- 
House, in Putnam. He vvas of stalwart frame, and his 
visage was of the Andrew Jackson type. He dealt al- 
most exclusivel}^ in the denunciations of the law, and I 
can imasrine nothino; more fearful than some of his 
exhortations to sinners. To a young and impressible 
mind as my own was when I heard him, it was truly 
awful. 

" He always wore the round-breasted coat^ the white 
cravat without a collar, nor could he tolerate any dis- 
regard of this old costume, then so common among the 
preachers." Dr. P. proceeds to give an incident con- 
nected with the old preacher and young George 
Pierce, afterwai'ds Bishop, which, as we have it di- 
rectly from the Bishop, we give to our readers as he 
gave it to us. 

After his graduation from Franklin College, George 
Pierce entered the law office of his uncle, the Hon, 



* Sprague. 



TN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 17S5-18G5. 



137 



Thomas Foster, to study law. He was then a Christian, 
and felt it his duty to preach. 'No motives of earthly 
ambition had led him to diverge from the path in which 
be believed he onght to walk, but motives of the high- 
est and most unseltish kind. The oldest son, who longed 
to do something to aid a self-sacrificing father, might be 
easily persuaded that duty forbade his going when his 
inclination led him into an itinerancy which promised 
no worldly return. Bishop Andrew, living at Greens- 
boro, though stationed in Athens, convinced him that he 
must let the dead bury their dead, and follow Christ; 
and an application was made at Bishop Andrew's Instance, 
to the congregation for recommendation to tlie Quar- 
terly Conference of the Apalachee Circuit, that license 
to preach should be granted to the young law student. 
One Sundav mornino; Brother Collin o-s worth beino; 
preacher in charge, requested the society to remain, and 
3T)ung Pierce remained with them. He was dressed in 
his graduating suit. It was of blue broadcloth, a swal- 
low-tailed coat with brass buttons, and vest and pants to 
match. The old preacher arose, and requested George 
Pierce to retire. After some time he called him back, 
and met him outside of the house. Well, George," he 
said, " in spite of all I can do, these people have recom- 
mended you to the quarterly conference for license ; 
l)ut, George, this coat must come off. You can never 
be licensed to preach dressed in such a worldly way as 
this." " But," said the future Bishop, " Uncle Collings- 
worth, I have no other nice coat, and don't think it 
would be rio:ht to take this off, for father is not able to 
buy me a new outfit. I will wear this out, but 1 will 
not get another like it." 

In vain the old man scolded, reasoned, and threatened. 



138 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



The 3'oiing preacher stood his ground. He scolded him 
privately and publicly. He bore it meekly, but con- 
tinned to wear his blue broadcloth. The next trouble 
of the old man was the way George wore his hair. It 
grew straight np from the forehead, wliile his, in old 
Methodist style, lay, like Asbury's, down upon it. 
George told him God made his hair to grow up, and he 
could not make it grow down. Quarterly conference 
came. Brother Collingswortli did all he could to pre- 
vent the members from giving him license ; but they 
were only too glad to license the gifted and educated 
son of one of the noblest of the fathers, and the old 
gentleman was overruled again. Then the annual con- 
ference received the young licentiate^ and he was sent 
on the circuit adjoining Apalachee. 

Half the year was gone. There was a camp-meeting 
at Old Hastings, and Father Collingsworth was in 
charge of it. There had been much rain, and the 
preachers were unable to get to the ground. One even- 
ing the old preacher stepped into Sister Pierce's tent, 
and there at the supper-table sat George. He was 
dressed now, if not in proper clerical costume, yet 
without the blue cloth and the brass buttons. 

" Why, George, how did you get here? '' 

" Well, partly by land, and largely by water." 

" Did you swim an}^ creeks ? " 

" Yes, I did. I swam three." 

The old man lovingly laid his hand on the young 
preacher's head. 

" Why, did you, boy ? Well, George, I think you'll 
do, after all." 

For once Brother C. admitted he was w^rong. 

The minutes report large increase on the Ogeechee 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 17S5-1865. 



139 



District, where James Russell, in the glory of his 
strength, sweeps a conqueror. 

Lovick Pierce, on the Oconee District, had but a 
single elder in his district, while the experienced and 
popular Cabel had three, and one of them was Russell ; 
yet the increase is in about the same ratio. Pierce 
visits every part of his district, reaching even Jefferson- 
ton, near the Saltilla, a few miles from Florida. This 
incessant travel broke in upon his habits of study, fos- 
tered by station life. His Greek books were laid aside 
to be taken up no more, and his habit of writing as he 
studied was necessarily at an end. 

The annual conference met in Charleston, Dec. 23, 
1809. 

There had been a great revival on the Little River 
Circuit, and one on the adjoin.ing circuit, in South 
Carolina. Asbury was delighted by the news which 
reached him of rich and poor in Georgia coming to 
Christ. 

The Oconee District was reduced in size, and Jos. 
Tarpley was placed on the Sparta District, which 
embraced all the country south and west of Sparta. 
Lewis Myers returned to Georgia and was placed on 
the Ogeechee District, which Capel left as he left the 
conference, by location. Myers had gone from the 
State years before, a junior preacher, and after doing 
important work in South Carolina, he was called to the 
charge of a district. Georgia had three presiding elders 
such as she has not often had. 

Myers, the oldest of them, sturdy, energetic, earnest, 
and always sensible. 

Tarpley, of fine person, very eloquent and moving in 
preaching, and very popular in his manners; and 



140 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



Lovick Pierce, who was a marvel in his youth to the 
grandfathers of those to whom he is a marvel in his 
vigorous age. 

These leaders, upon whom so much rests, had the 
State divided among them, and, attended by a corps of 
pious and devoted men, had gone foj'th on tlieir work. 

Hilliard Judge, a Virginian by birth, was in Geoj'gia 
tliis year, and for several years after this. Pie was a 
verj^ handsome man, and of ver}^ courtly manners. His 
style in preaching was veiy pleasing and attractive, and 
iurproving constantly, he rose to great eminence in the 
Church, occupying its most important stations, and was 
the fii'st Methodist preacher elected*, to the cliaplainc}^ of 
the South Carolina Legislature. He located in his ma- 
turity, and died not long after. 

James Pussell and John Collingsworth, men of great 
power, and John McA'^ean, of whom we have given a 
sketch in our account of Savannah Methodism, were 
men of experience. The rest were young men, and one 
wlio travelled the Apalachee Circuit, if not to be a great 
man, was to lead a grand life. A great-hearted, brave, 
self-sacrificing man, who, amid a thousand difficulties, 
continued his ministry to the end, which came fifty 
years from this time. This was Jno. S. Ford, the first 
missionar}^ to the west of Pouisiana. He was born in 
Chester District, S. C, and was at this time only twenty 
years old. His father died when he was a child, and 
his mother, after her second marriage, remo\'ed to orth 
Carolina, She was of Presbj^terian lineage and educa- 
tion, and taught her son the catechism. AViien he was 
about fourteen years old the wave of revival rolled from 
Kentucky into western ^sTortli Carolina, and some of his 
friends going to a camp-meeting returned to their homes 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



141 



converted. At a prayer-meeting held in the neighbor- 
hood thej began to shout and clap their hands, and 
young Ford was deeply impressed. When the Metho- 
dist preacher came into the section to organize a class, 
his mother and himself joined the society. At nineteen 
he applied for admission into the travelling connection, 
and was appointed to Apalachee, a large and important 
circuit, as the third man. He was young and timid, but 
he did his work well, and success attended his labors. 
We shall see him again in a more difficult field. ^ 

Richmond Nolley,f v/ho was to be his associate in 
the far West, was admitted into full communion at this 
conference. A few years before this, while a clerk in 
the store of John Lncas, at Sparta, under a sermon of 
Lovick Pierce, at the Sparta Camp-ground, he was awak- 
ened and was converted. He spent one year in Geor- 
gia, and one in Charleston, and this year returned to 
Georgia. The next year he went to the far West. Of 
these two youiig heroes we shall speak hereafter, even 
though after 1812 they are mentioned as being in the 
Western Conference. 

After a great revival there is other work to be done, 
and a very important part of church work in early Meth- 
odist days was excision. Get them into the society, 
train them well ; but if they will not be trained, cut 
them off. This was the process. Lewis Myers espe- 
cially believed in amputation, and, believing it did good, 
he never allowed his sympathies to control his surgery. 
Wince they might, but the amputation went on. There 
was no considerable increase reported at the conference 
which met in Columbia, S. C, December 23, 1810. It 



* Ford's M3S. 



f Bishop McTyiere. 



142 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



met in the house of Governor Taylor, then Senator, and 
after a session which seeuis to have been pleasant enongh^ 
but without anything of special interest, the conference 
adjourned and the preachers went to their work. 

The districts remain unchanged, and the same pre- 
siding elders had them in charge. Alexander Talle}^, 
the first of three brothers who were to do good service 
for the Church, entered the conference this year. He 
was a Yirginian by birth, but his father had removed 
to Greene County. He was sent to the Ocmulgee Cir- 
cuit, w^th Drnry PowelL He afterwards went as mis- 
sionary to the Choctaw Indians in Mississippi, and w^hen 
they left Mississippi for the far West, he went with them 
there, and remained in the work until he died. He 
died in Louisiana in 1840. Thomas Y. Cooke was sent 
to Milledgeville. He was the first stationed preacher 
ever stationed in the then capital of the State. The 
town was now eight years old, and its position as the capi- 
tal had drawn quite a bustling and intelligent people to 
it. The new Methodist church had not lono; been made 
ready for occupancy. It was located w^here is now the 
cemetery. There were 102 members in the station, and 
it was consequently the largest station in the State. 
Augusta had but sixty-four white members, and Savan- 
nah three. Warrenton, which was set apart as a station, 
wuth John Collingsworth for its pastor, did not remain 
such but one year, and was then returned to the Warren 
Circuit. 

One name occurs in the appointments this year which 
was long on the minutes of the South Carolina and Geor- 
gia Conferences — the name of Whitman C. Hill, who 
was for many years one of the most, if not the most 
successful worker in the State. He was from the re- 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



143 



spectable and wealthy family of Hills in Oglethorpe 
County. He had enjoyed all the advantages which 
those early days gave him, and was a man of very fair 
attainments. He spoke with great finency and correct- 
ness, and was very moving in his appeals. His soul 
was ablaze with evangelical fervor, and wherever he 
went souls were converted. His wife, the daugliter of 
Isaac Smith, of precious memory, was his efficient 
assistant in his work, laboring in a woman's sphere 
continually to do good. We shall meet him often as 
our story progresses. 

On the banks of the Tombigbee, in the southern and 
western part of Alabama, was quite a body of American 
settlers. Pensacola and Mobile were the ports to 
which came the peltry of the Indians and the goods of 
the traders. Prior to the purchase of Louisiana and the 
opening of the Natchez Country, there were a few 
whites, who had already left the white settlements and 
squatted in the Nation. They were a lawless and licen- 
tious crew ; but after the invention of the cotton- 
gin, and the purchase of Alabama from Georgia, the 
number of the settlers increased, and their characters 
improved. Some of them came from North Carolina, 
by the way of the Tennessee Eiver, to near Huntsville, 
and thence through the wilderness to the Tombigbee, 
and then on rafts and in small boats to the settlements."^ 
I Others came from the Natchez Country, and others 
from Georgia. 

In 1803 Lorenzo Dow, making his way to Natchez, 
came into this country. He found quite a number of 
settlers in one group, and a few scattered along the 



* Pickett's Alabama. 



144 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



river for seventy miles. He left a chain of appoint- 
ments, which he afterwards tilled. He was probably the 
first Protestant, as well as the first Methodist preacher, 
v\'ho ever preached the gospel in Alabama.^ 

This visit was made in 1803. Tobias Gibson and 
Moses Black, both of whom had travelled in the South 
Carolina Conference, were in the Natchez settlement, 
and after Dow had visited this country, they came from 
the West, and preached in it; but it was not until 
1808 that Asbury resolved to send the frontiersmen of 
Alabama a preacher. At the conference at Bush's, in 
Greene County, Matthew P. Sturtevant was selected for 
the work. Sturtevant was a Yirginian of moderate 
gifts, and w^ithout the capacity to organize and build 
up a work requiring as much heroism and skill as this 
new field demanded. He, however, went into the wil- 
derness and began his work ; his health soon failed, and 
when Col. Joe Foster, the father-in-law of Dr. Pierce, 
went on an expedition to the Tombigbee, he found the 
lone missionary sick and discouraged, and he brought 
him back to Georgia with him. j* Michael Burge had 
gone to his aid, and he continued the work until Jno. W. 
Kennon came, and at the Conference of 1811, Jno. S, 
Ford was sent to the mission. The labors of Burge 
and Kennon we are reluctant to pass over without 
more than mention, but what else can we do ? We 
get a glimpse, and only a glimpse, of the good men ; see 
them in the wilds, pursuing their lonely work of love, 
and see the results of it ; but of the laborers, and where 
and how the work was done, we know and can know 
nothino*. Since Dow was at Tombio;bee, until Ford 



* Dow's Life. 



f Dr. Pierce. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



145 



came, we know iiotliiiio; definite : bat in his old acre 
Ford w^rote an acconnt of his stay at Tombigbee, which 
we have been fortunately able to secure. 

He had travelled his first circuit as third man on 
Apalachee, and had gone to see his mother in North. 
Carolina. He did not go to conference, and was w^ait- 
ing for his appointment. It came at last. The Tom- 
highee. It was 500 miles away — 300 miles through 
the Indian Nation. There were trails instead of roads ; 
there were rivers to cross, without bridges; there were 
no houses to shelter the traveller ; the swamps they had 
to cross were only inhabited by the alligator, the 
panther, and the bear ; and the young preacher sent to 
the work was only twenty years old. He, however, did 
not delay, but bade farewell to his mother and to his 
afhanced ; for, young as he was, he had for two years 
been engaged to be married to a sweet mountain girl, 
w^hose hand, five years after, he came to claim, and 
then turned his face to the far West. 

Despite the sober dignity which the pages of a 
history like this may justly demand, the poetic beauty 
of this scene must for a moment ari'est ns. The humble 
North Carolina home, the simple-hearted Christian 
mother, the weeping, shrinking, timid girl, to whom the 
young prencher was all in all; the short, ruddy-faced, 
determined bo}^ ; the wild woods, the deep rivers, the 
rude frontiersmen ; the unpaid toil ; the intrepidity ; 
the Christ-like love — all these pass before us as we see 
J no. S. Ford leaving his mother's home for the Tom- 
bigbee. Every Christian," says Vinet, ''is a hero; 
every Christian minister a leader of heroes." But such 
heroism as this is rare, because rarely demanded. He 
shall tell his own story : 
7 



146 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



" Our conference was held in Columbia. News then 
travelled slow, and it was some time before I found out 
where I was to go; wlieu it came I was surprised some- 
what. 

" I was appointed a missionary to Tombigbee Mis- 
sion, in the Mississippi Territory. But 1 had deter- 
mined to go where 1 was sent. I therefore delayed not, 
l)ut fixed up, and bade Tcirewell to my dear afflicted 
mother, brothers, and sisters, and to her who was ]iow 
dearer to me than all others, and started to my distant 
field of labor. It was a long way. Between 400 and 
500 miles of it had to be performed on horseback, and 
300 of it through an uncultivated wilderness, inhabited 
only by the Indians. 

''I had to pass through the circuit I had travelled 
the previous j^ear. Brother Osborn Kogers was on that 
circuit, and the first Sabbath after I left I spent with 
him at one of his appointments. There were two other 
preachers appointed to the Mississippi field besides my- 
self, but I found when I got to Georgia that they had 
gone on and left me behind, and it seemed I would 
have to alone throuo:h the wilderness : but this looked 
like an almost impossible thing, as it was winter and 
the streams almost full. But I found a young man in 
Athens, a student in the college, who wanted to go 
through to visit his parents in Jfatchez. We concluded 
to join and go through together. We got a wallet of 
provisions, a hatchet, and some cooking utensils, two 
blankets apiece, and took the wilderness. There were 
then no white inhabitants from the Ocmulgee in 
Georgia to the settlement on Tombigbee. We had to 
lie out ten nights and travel eleven days before we got 
through. During our journey w^e had a great deal of 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



147 



rain, some snow, and one heavy sleet. The water- 
courses were all full, and few of them bridged, and but 
few ferries. We had to carry over our things on logs, 
and swim our horses through. On the eleventh day we 
ate our last cake for dinner, expecting we should have to 
do without bread that night, but fortunately we got 
into the Basset's Creek settlement, and to the house of 
Brother John Dean, who received us cordially and sup- 
plied everything needed to m^ake us comfortable. I 
felt very grateful to my Heavenly Father that He had 
brought us all through safely the dangers and difficul- 
ties of the way, and directed us to such a kind friend 
and brother, in that distant and strange country. I was 
now in my mission, and this was one of my pleasant 
homes dui-ing my stay in that mission. Brother John 
W. Kennon was already on the mission, and had been 
during the past year, but he was not able to be in that 
neighborhood for some days. My travelling companion, 
after resting a day or two, went on towards ^^atchez. 
There was a pretty good society in this neighborhood, 
and the Friday after my arrival was fast-day. I 
attended meeting and preached for them, and they 
seemed rejoiced and thankful for my safe arrival. I felt 
encouraged and hoped to see good times among them, 
and in this I was not disappointed, for we had a revi- 
val and many were added to the Church during the 
year. Brother Kennon came on in a few days, and I 
went around the mission with him. It extended from 
the neighborhood on Tombigbee to the upper settle- 
ments, including the Basset Creek, fifteen miles from 
its mouth on Bigbee; thence to the upper settlements 
on Buckatuna, down that to Chickasawhai, and down 
that sixty or seventy miles ; then to Leaf River, and 



148 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



thence back to Chickasawhai ; then to St. Stephen's, 
then down Bigbee to the neighborhood of Wakefield. 

"Our appointments, few and far between, were scat- 
tered over a large extent of country. We had long rides, 
hard fare, too much water in w^inter, and but little in 
snmmer, but we found many kind, affectionate friends. 
They were mostly new-comers, and not prepared to ex- 
tend accommodations to us as well as they w^ished ; but 
when they did as w^ell as they could, we felt satisfied and 
grateful. I shall ever remember them kindly, especially 
Brother John Dean and his fami]}^ They treated me 
as a son — may God bless tliem ! So, also, I may say of 
Brothers John McEay, Boy kin, Godfrey, and many 
otliers. 1 found Brother Kennon to be a pious man and 
a good preacher, a kind and affectionate brotlier in 
Christ. We labored in harmony, and with some success. 
We formed new societies, and had some churches built. 

" This was the year of the ' earthquakes,' as it was 
called, from the shaking of the eai-th in 1812. This pro- 
duced general alarm, and many who had been skeptical 
and entirely indifferent about their future welfare were 
w^aked up. Our congregations increased. They began 
to think the Bible was true and our preaching of im- 
portance. I was asked if the Bible said the earth shall 
reel to and fro like a drunken man. I told them it did, 
got the place and read it to them ; and when they felt 
the earth in motion again their fears were alarmed, and 
they cried to God for mercy, and through the influence 
of the Holy Spirit many were led to exercise faith in 
Christ, and obtained forgiveness and a change of heart, 
and were made new creatures in Christ Jesus. We had 
a gracious revival, and added many to the Church." 

TJie next year the Tombigbee Mission and the name 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



149 



of Ford are not found on the minutes of the South 
Carolina Conference, but on those of the Western, where 
he appears as sent to the Attapakias. This was still 
farther to the west, beyond the Mississippi, on the 
borders of Texas. Four preachers had volunteered to 
come from Georgia to his aid. They were Lewis Hobbs, 
Richmond Nolley, Thomas Griffin, and Drury Powell. 
Saml. Dunwoodv was to come with them, but, beine: a 
delegate to the general conference, which met in May, 
lie could not come then, and never came. Ford left 
Nolley and Drury Powell on the Tombigbee Circuit, and 
in company with Hobbs and Griffin w^ent on to the 
Natchez Country. They found s< ^me old Methodists on 
Pearl River, then reached the Red Lick settlement, now 
Yicksburg, where they left Lewis Hobbs. Then the two 
young preachers, Ford and Griffin, crossed the Missis- 
sippi and w^ere in Louisiana. It had for not quite ten 
years been in the possession of the United States, and 
was only thinly peopled by any class of settlei'S, and by 
very few Americans. Griffin weiit north towards the 
Arkansas line, and Ford towards the south. As they 
travelled together before they readied the point from 
which they were to take different ways, they came to a 
small log-church. It had been built by James Axley, 
and was one of the first Methodist churches in Louisiana, 
and one of the first west of the Mississippi. Axley 
had travelled in these prairies a few years before, and 
having been literally starved out, unable to get food for 
his horse, and unable to travel without him, he had 
started for his home in Tennessee. He had to stop a 
few weeks for his horse to recruit, and while he was 
resting, with his own hands he built a church. This was 
the only church Ford found. Methodism had now been 



150 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



six years in Louisiana, but had accomplished but little. 
Ford soon found himself in the pi^airies to whicli lie 
had been sent. They were wild and untracked, filled 
w^ith deep bayous, dangerous streams, and wild swamps. 
'Now and then he found a body of settlers of many 
nationalities — negroes, mulattoes, quadroons, Spaniards, 
Frenchmen, Creoles, and Canadians, alike in neither 
language nor costume, in nothing but godlessness. Here 
the young preacher pursued his arduous work. He re- 
mained for two years on the west of the Mississippi, then 
two more years in Mississippi, and after five years' ab- 
sence from North Carolina, was appointed to the Nola- 
chucky Circuit in Tennessee. He returned home before 
he began his work. His sweetheart, faithful all the 
time, w^as waiting for him, and as he had fairly won his 
bride, he was married as soon as he returned, and then 
went to his work.^ He travelled a few years, and reluc- 
tantly located ; then returned to Georgia and labored 
as a local preacher, re-entered the conference, was driven 
to location again by insuflicient support, and again re- 
entered the work, and in it died. He was for a long 
time superannuated. He was a dignified, meek, gentle 
old man, who, although almost stone deaf himself, used 
to preach to others a Gospel he could not hear himself. 
He was much beloved by all who knew him. The dear 
wife who had been the joy of his heart in youth and 
manhood and age, died a few years before him, and the 
deaf old man, now doubly lonely, waited for the Mas- 
ter's call, which came in 1867, when he went home. 

Asbury visited Georgia again this j-ear, having been 
nearly three years absent. He entered the State below 



* Ford's MSS. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, li 85-1865. 



151 



Augusta, and preached at Old Church, the first time in 
over twenty years, and thence to Lovett's, in Scriven. 
These Lovetts were the parent stock of those who are 
doing the Church service now. He passed through 
Eftingliani, and went to Savannah, where the good Dr. 
Kollock had several kind interviews w^ith him. He 
was accompanied on this visit by Henry Boehm, who 
preached in German for the Saltzburghers.- He found 
that Lewis Myers, then presiding elder, had secured a 
lot for a new church in Savannah. He returned to 
South Carolina, and tlience to Camden, where the 
conference met, Dec. 31, 1811. The session seems to 
liave been one of great harmony, and the reports indi- 
cate that the year in the entire conference had been one 
of great prosperity. During its progress there had been 
a net gain of 3,380 members. There wei-e now eighty- 
five efi^ective preachers on the roll. The districts in Geor- 
gia remained as they were. The Milledgeville Circuit 
disappeared, and the Cedar Creek took its place. Cedar 
Creek runs through Jasper and Jones, and the Cedar 
Creek Circuit included Jasper, Jones, Baldwin, and a 
part of - Putnam. It included a fine country, which had 
been settled for eight years with a good people, who 
had means and energy. The number of members re- 
ported in it was 845. The most important circuit as 
to numbers was the Broad River, which had 1,427 
members. The Apalachee had 1,034, and the Little 
Eiver, 742. The Sparta had 742. Then came the cir- 
(iuits in the more thinly settled country : the Washing- 
ton, which had only 298, and the Ohoopee and Santilla 
only 100 each. The Alcovi had 986. The Louisville, 
517. There were three small stations, Milledgeville, 
Augusta, Savannah. Milledgeville was the most pros- 



152 



HISTOKY OF METHODISM 



peroiis station, and in Savannah there was still only 
three members. 

During this year the war with England was declared, 
Savannah w^as threatened by the English fleets, and 
troops from Georgia w^ere called for. Up to this epoch 
the Methodists and their preachers had been denounced 
b}^ their enemies as Tories; but they now came so 
bravely to tlie call of the country, that from this day 
the accusation ceased. 

At this conference delep'ates were elected to the g-en- 
eral conference provided for in the session of 1808. 
The legislative bodies of Methodism have, like all other 
features of her economy, been the offspring of neces- 
sity—the children of Providence. First, there was the 
quarterly conferences of Mr. Wesley's societies in 
America, and then the annual meeting of all the 
preachers, and then the general conference, of which 
all the elders were members, and which met every four 
years. The first regular general conference was held 
in 1Y92 ; of this no minutes are preserved ; the second 
in 1796, of which we have given account. There was a 
kind of legislative council, of which Richard Ivy, of 
Geoi-gia, was one of the first members, and of which 
the histories of Methodism give a full account, but con- 
cerning which our history need do no more than make 
mention. Tlie delegated general Conference was to meet 
in May, 1812, in New York, and at this session of the 
South Carolina Conference delegates were elected. They 
were Lewis Myers, Lovick Pierce, Jos. Tarpley, Daniel 
Asbury, W. M. Kennedy, Samuel Dunwoody, Jno. B. 
Glenn, Jos. Travis, and Ililliard Judge. Of these only 
Lovick Pierce now lives, and of all the body, that vene- 
rable man is the only one who remains. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



153 



We cannot get a proper view of Methodist history 
by the mere recital of current events and the mere por- 
traiture of the workers. We must pause now and then, 
and survey the ground over which we have passed, and 
mark the clianges which have passed over church and 
state."^ 

Georgia had undergone great changes in the last ten 
years, and Georgia Methodists liad passed through a 
very important period. It has now been nearly thirty 
years since the first Methodist came, and the children 
of those who were converted then, and some of those 
w^ho began to preach, now enter into the work of the 
ministry themselves. Even the frontier counties of 
Georgia have largely lost the rudeness which always 
belongs to new settlements, and the older counties of 
the State have taken on many of the pleasant features 
of refinement and cultivation. 

The early Methodist preachers were a peculiar peo- 
ple. This they knew themselves, and they were not 
disposed to deplore the fact. They believed Christians 
ought to be a peculiar people, and especially preachers, 
and not to be conformed to the world. The old disci- 
pline was the guide-book, and no army oflicer ever re- 
garded more strictly the army regulations than a faith- 
ful preacher his discipline. 

Asbury had brought w^ith him, from England, the 
dress and habits of an English Wesleyan, and as Wes- 
ley was Asbury's model, so he was in his turn the model 
of the American preachers. The dress of both preach- 
ers and people was as marked as that of the Quakers. 
A preacher who did not wear a straight-breasted coat was 



* Travis. 



154 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



in sinful conformity to the world. It was not the coat 
he wore, but the motive which led him to wear anj but 
. a straight-breast, that made it an offence. The hair was 
to be cut short, and brushed neatly down on the fore- 
head. No preacher ever thought of wearing a beard. 
It would have been almost as offensive as a heresy. 
The good brethren would have lost all confidence in 
his piety if he had been so worldly. The pantaloons 
of the French had taken the place of knee-breeclies, 
and there was some disposition to wear newly-invented 
suspenders, or galhtses^ as they were called. This was 
very objectionable, and the young preacher who used 
these convenient articles, had to account for it. Bishop 
Capers tells how an old brother said to him once: 
Brother Capers, I do love you ; but oh, them galluses ! " 
And there is a tradition that in one quarterly conference 
a young probationer was complained of for wearing 
them, and forty years afterwards another for not wear- 
ing them ; and so with the good women — they dressed 
with perfect plainness. These details are historical and 
are not simply amusing, for a great principle lay at tlie 
base of this to us apparently trivial matter. Dress 
was running the world wild. Extravagance and im- 
purity were alike fostered by it, and Methodism, aiming 
to develop an inner life, did not do ill when she endeav- 
ored to train her children to use that which was out- 
ward, and not abuse it. The hour for rising was gen- 
erally four o'clock, winter and summer. From that 
time to six the preacher read and prayed. After 
prayers with the family, and breakfast, he mounted his 
faithful horse and was off to his appointments. He 
preached about twelve o'clock, and invariably held class 
w^ith his fl-ock, whom he had not seen in twenty-eight days, 



IX GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1 785-1865. 



155 



and would not see again for twenty-eiglit davs more, 
lie went home with some good brother, and frequently 
preached again at niglit. This he did every day in the 
week except Monday. His colleague and himself met 
that day, and it was a rest day. If he had a wife, he 
tried to get to see her then ; but generally he was single, 
and spent the clay with his colleague. There was a 
conscientious exactness in filling appointments, and to 
do that he braved all weathers and dared all dangers. 
The rides were long, the exposure gi-eat, the labor 
exhausting, for he was generally a boisterous man. All 
this required men of iron, and but few preacliers were 
able to endure it long ; and health giving way, one by 
one they sank into their graves or retired from the 
work broken down in body. The salary allowed was 
eighty dollars per annum. Up to 1804: it had been 
sixty-four dollars ; before a federal currency it had been 
twenty -five pounds Continental money. A wife was 
allowed the same as her husband. This was paid out 
of quarterly collections, taken at first by the preachers, 
and then by the stewards. Each j^reacher reported 
everything he received to the conference, presents and 
all, until the law regarding presents was repealed. If 
there was a deficiency, the conference made it up, if it 
was able to do so. There was no provision made for 
family supplies. If a preacher maj-ried and had no 
property of his own, he had no alternative but to locate 
after his familv PTew too laro-e to board around with 
him. 

The effects of a disease remain when the causes which 
gave it being have passed away. The limb once para- 
lized remains long useless, even after the clot of blood 
w^hicli effected the injury has been absorbed, and it is 



156 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



often years before the habit of use returns. So in the 
Church. When Humphries and Major began their 
ministry the members of the societies were few. The 
people were all poor, and in 1812 the same usages 
which obtained in 1788 were still existent. They had 
come down to children who believed their ancestors to 
have done just right ; and noWj when Methodists were 
a well-to-do, and many of them a rich people, the same 
old habit of giving a quarter of a dollar per quarter 
continued. The preachers, as we have seen, were liter- 
ally forced to retire from the work, or to remain single. 

The first Methodists, for the support of the minis tiy, 
gave little and gave it reluctantly. Why was this? 
Was it the love of money — a criminal penuriousness ? 
We think not. The same Methodist who gave twenty- 
five cents per quarter to his self-denying preacher, 
kept an open honse and entertained a whole quarterly 
conference ; he would go twenty miles to a canjp-meeting 
and feed hundreds. He would oftentimes give the old 
preacher a home as long as he lived. He would stop 
every plow, and send every slave to meeting on a weeic 
day. No poor ever cried to him in vain for bread. No 
sophistry could induce him to take more than legal in- 
terest for his money; yet he did not give liberally to 
support the preacher, and as yet there were no mission- 
ary societies among the Methodists. 

There were no paid preachers in those days. There 
was a doubt whether they ought to be paid. The clej-gy 
of Virginia, from which State the fathers of these Geor- 
gians came, had been supported by a reluctantly paid 
tobacco tax, and the very thought of a hireling ministry 
was obnoxious to the mass of the people. Tlie Baptists 
preached for nothing, and gloried in it. Humphries, 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



157 



Ivy, Major, had received comparatively nothing ; why 
should their successors need so much. Then the preach- 
ers said nothing about money, except to discourage its 
accumulation. To get men to cease from drrjikenness, 
horse-racing, gambling, and Sabbath-breaking, to secure 
their conversion, to induce the worldly girl to lay aside 
her lings, and ruffles, and the gay young man his 
worldly ways, and to go to class, and speak in love-feast, 
and pray in the family, and maybe preach — this was 
the object at which they aimed. They said but little, 
and that little always timidly, about the religious use of 
money, and thus our forefathers in the ministry prepared 
the way for their own banishment from the work they 
loved so well. 

The ]3eople were generally plain, and generally with 
but little education, but they were men of sturdy 
character. There was now and then a home of ele- 
gance, but mostly the homes were simple. Industry 
and prudence w^ere the chief virtues next to piety. 
There w^as no want in all the land. 

The religious habits of the Methodists were as marked. 
"When a man was converted in those days, he expected to 
shout ; he expected to get happy at every circuit-])reach- 
ing day and at every class-meeting. He expected, when 
he joined the Church, to go to circuit-preaching and 
camp-meeting. He expected to pray whenever he was 
called on ; he expected to pray three times a day in private, 
and to abjure all the vanities of the world. This was 
what he believed the life of a good Methodist demanded. 
So, when the J^oung girl, happy in her new experience, 
came home from the camp-meeting, where she had been 
converted, she took off every ruffle and frill from her 
dress, every flower from her bonnet, every ring from 



158 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



her fingers. Slie had made up her mind to live a life 
of consecration and simplicity, and to take up her cross, 
as she called it at all times. So she was ready to pray in 
the famil}^, to pray in class-meeting, and to pray in 
church, and was an angel of mercy to those around. 
This was what the early Methodist calculated on, and 
this was what they did. They did not expect to sup- 
port a married preacher, and they did not do it until 
they were convinced it ought to be done. 

The discipline of the Society, as the Church was 
called, was rigid and certain. Every man, high or low, 
knew he would be called to account for any violation 
of rule, arid so directed his steps. The Iron Duke 
lived before himself in his kinsman, John Wesley, and 
the same spirit which ordered an unfaithful quarter- 
master to be shot, ordered an unfaithful member to be 
cut otf, or an inefficient preacher to private life. The 
discipline of the English Methodists was introduced into 
the Methodist Episcopal Church in America.. 

The local preachers of those days were numerous and 
efficient. They knew they had work to do, and they 
did it. The circuit preacher came to only four of his 
twenty-eight appointments on Sunday, and the Sabbaths 
fell to the local preachers. They led the way into new 
fields. They assisted at every quarterly and every 
camp meeting. They oftentimes had to ride fifty 
miles to get to them ; but they were there. We are 
painfully conscious of our inability to give to those 
good men the place they are entitled to, but no effort 
of ours has been sufficient to rescue many honored 
names from unmerited oblivion. The faithful class- 
leader, the only pastor of the flock in those days, was 
invaluable when the preacher in charge was not ex- 



m GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



159 



pected to be more than he was, the preacher in charge. 
The steward's oliice, so important now, was only of 
small value when all that was required of 900 members 
was to pay up their $100. There was only in a large cir- 
cuit, embracing several counties, only seven, and these 
circuit stewards, as they were called, visited the churches 
occasionally, and took what tlie people were willing to 
give. They had no system, and did not see the need of 
one. David Merriwether or Thomas Grant could have 
paid the whole assessment for the Little JRiver Circuit, 
and never felt the loss of the money. So the people 
were not trained to do anything systematically in this 
direction, nor was there much improvement for several 
years after this. 



160 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



CHAPTER VI. 

Fkom 1812 TO THE Death of Asbury in 1S16. Henry 

Bass. 

James O. Andrews— Samuel K. Hodges— Location of Lovigk Pierce 
—Sketch of his Wife— Thomas Darley— Location of Russell — 
Allen Turner— Elijah Bird— Continued Decline — Asbury's 
Death— Character of Asbury, etc., etc. 

The districts retain the same presiding elders. The 
Oconee District, over which Lovick Pierce presided, 
had in it only three appointments, Apalachee, Broad 
Kiver, and Oconee, but they stretched from the Savan- 
nah River to the Ocmnlgee, and from the upper part of 
Jackson County to the lower part of Putnam. 

Samuel M. Meek, a gentle, gifted man, was sent to 
Milledgeville. Daring tliis year he established the first 
Methodist Sunday-School in Georgia of which we have 
been able to find any mention."^ lie studied medicine 
with Dr. Byrd, and located at the next conference. 

Henry Bass was on the Apalachee Circuit this year, 
and thono;h it was his first vear, he was in charo^e. He 
was from Connecticut. At twenty-one he came to 
l^orth Carolina. In Faj^etteville he was converted and 
joined the Church, and soon after entered the confer- 
ence. He began in 1811 a travelling ministry, which 
continued for forty-nine years. His first cii-cuit was in 
Georgia, but he did the most of this work in South 



* Mr. Troutman. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-18G5. 



IGl 



Carolina, and tliere ended his life. He was an earnest 
worker and a very successful one. He was in Augusta 
in 1819, when there was the most gracious revival that 
city had ever known. He was in Savannah in 1817, 
when Methodism made an advance it never lost. Ho 
enterprised and built the first parsonage in the State. 
He was laborious, careful, devotedly pious, and very 
useful. His last days were days of gi-eat suffering and 
of great peace. 

He married a Georgia maiden, a lovely young Metli- 
odist, in Augusta. He left behind him two sons, faith- 
ful ministers of the Word, Dr. W. Capers Bass, of Ma- 
con, Ga., and Prof. Henry A. Bass, of South Carolina. 

James Russell was sent to Savannah this year. Savan- 
nah was still a forlorn hope. There were but three 
white members in the society. A church lot and 
some building material had been secured, but the house 
was not built. Lewis Myers desired the Bishop to send 
the most famous man of his time to heljD him in the 
important work ; and Russell was sent. He left the 
country to which he was so well suited, to enter into 
the city for which he had no fitness at all. He left a 
people who rarely heard any preaching but that of 
plain men, to go where for years the matchless elo- 
quence of Dr. Henry Kolloch, and tlie scarcely less 
attractive preaching of Di*. Henry Holcomb, was for 
every Sunday. He left a countrj^ where the Metho- 
dists were numerous and w^ealthy, to go where three 
poor white people and four poorer negroes wei-e all 
the society. It was like confining such a frontiersman 
as Daniel Boone to the limits of a child's nursery. 
Russell needed room foi* work, and encouragement in 
it, but the city aiforded him but little opportunity for 



162 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



the work he would do, and no encouragement to do 
that. The man who had held thousands by the en- 
cliantment of his eloquence, could not be eloquent 
before the empty benclies of a small room. 

To support his family he cut the marsh grass from the 
neighboring marshes and hawked it about the streets 
of Savamiah. To build the church he cut the timber 
on the banks of the river with his own hands, and. 
brought it in a raft down the stream. He finished the 
house and found himself involved in debt. He entered 
into trade, made some successful contracts w^ith the 
quartermasters, then began to do business of various 
kinds for his friends in the interior. Success attended 
him. He made money rapidly. He spent it like a 
prince. The times were those of w^ild speculation, and 
he began to speculate. He bought the old site of 
Vienna in Abbeville, S. C, at the head of Savannah 
river navigation, and purposed the building up of a 
city."^ Then suddenly came the peace. Then many 
of the largest commercial houses in the world w^ent 
down, and soon James Russell was a bankrupt, injur- 
ing in his fall his dearest friends. 

Next to an intentional dishonesty, one of the most 
painful things in life is a bankruptcy, when the bank- 
i-upt is conscious of uprightness, but knows others do 
not so regard his course ; when he has never intended 
to injure any man, but knows he has done so. Poor 
Russell ! he had held so high a place anaong his breth- 
ren. And now to be denounced, by those who once 
loved him and honored him, as one w^ ho had deceived 
and defrauded them ! He w^as a hopeless bankrupt. He 



* Dr. Pierce. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



163 



could not, if he had had capacity, have recovered him- 
self; and alas ! he had lost what was dearer to him than 
all, his ministerial place. He located — his family had 
grown u]3 around him ; he struggled hard to support 
them. In Augusta he used to make a scanty living by 
using a w^heelbarrow to carry packages."^ He was still 
a young man, but care had broken him in heart and in 
body. He had given his youth and young manhood to 
the work of the ministry ; he was fitted for nothing else. 
He was still permitted to preach as a local preacher, 
and Stephen Olin heard him at that time w^itli unmixed 
delight.f The lamed eagle would attempt to soar as 
had been his wont, and, crippled as he was, he soared 
like an eagle still, but he soon grew weary, and came 
to earth again. He never lost his Christian integjity. 
His name was never sullied with the stahi of inten- 
tional wrong. He was as meek, and gentle, and pa- 
tient, in the days of his adversity, as he had been joy- 
ous, and brave, and generous in other times. None now 
recall him save to honor him as the wonderful genius 
who had consecrated all to Christ and brought many 
souls home to glory. He died in 1825, at Dr. Meredith 
Moon^s, in Abbeville, S. C, when he was about forty -five 
years of age.:}: 

The general conference met in May, 1812, in New 
York. Bishops Asbury and McKendree were both 
present. It was the last general conference Asbury 
ever attended ; ere the next he was in Heaven. The 
general conferences before this had had their sessions 
with closed doors, excluding every one except the elders, 



* Mrs. Waterman. 

f See letter in the first issue of the Christian Journal. 
^iDr. Sprague, Bishop Wightman, Dr. Pierce, and others. 



164 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



who composed the body ; but now all the preachers in 
full connection were admitted into the gallery as spec- 
tators. Bishop McKendree presented the first Bishop's 
Pastoral, which was referred for considei'atioii to tlie 
respective committees. Lewis M3'ei-s was on the Com- 
mittee of Episcopacy. The presiding elder question 
again came up, and some some very strong men from 
the east and north argued that the office should be 
made elective. The delegates from the south and west 
opposed this view then, and at future times. It was, 
however, only defeated by a small majority. 

Jauies Axley endeavored unsuccessfully to have a 
new law introduced into the discipline, forbidding the 
distillation and retail of spirituous liquors by members 
of the Church. This was voted down, on the ground 
that we had already decided that such persons should 
be dealt with as in case of other immoralities. A motion 
to forbid members of the Church from buying lotterj^ 
tickets was presented, and action was deferred to the 
next general conference. The slavery question as 
usual came up, but was quietly disposed of by a motion 
to lay the subject on the table. J. Early introduced a 
resolution which for many years stood in the discipline, 
to forbid the giving of treats at elections. The South 
Carolina delegation seems to have been a very quiet 
one, only one motion having been made by Lewis 
Myers, and none by any other of the delegates. 

The conference continued its sessions till May 22d, 
\vhen it adjourned to meet in Baltimore, May 1, 1816. 

As its hour of meeting and adjournment were from 
nine to twelve, and from three to five, it was really in 
session more hours than the conferences of the present 
time, which remain together for oiua month. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1805. 



The war was now upon the country, the Indians as 
well as the British were in arms, and the embargo 
stagnated all trade, so that there was general alarm and 
depression. It was not to be wondered at that there 
should be for the first time in several years a decrease 
of members. In the Sparta District the decrease was 
nearly 400, and in the Ogeechee oyer 200 ; but in the 
Oconee there was a considerable increase, so as to 
nearly offset the lapse in the other two. There were no 
considerable reyiyals, and this was the beo-iimiiio' of 
years of constant, though slow decline. The total num- 
ber of members reported at the Conference of 1813 
was 8,453 whites and 1,450 colored members of the 
Church. 

Jno. B. Grlenn, who was on the Ohoopee Circuit, 
w^as from Chester District, S. C. He was conyer ted 
when he was twenty-one, and joined the conference 
in 1809. He travelled for some years, then located, 
and after living in Jones and Merriwether counties in 
Georgia, finally moved to Alabama, and settled in 
Auburn, where he died in 1869. He was a good and 
useful man to the end. 

The conference met at Charleston, December 19, 1812. 
Bishop Asbury was present. To reach the confer- 
ence the feeble old man had ridden on horseback from 
Kentucky, where he was in October, over the mountains 
of East TennCv^see and Xorth Carolina, through the 
upper part of South Carolina, and on to Charleston. 
The weather was severe, and he often had to swim his 
noble hcrse, Fox, through the swollen streams. Although 
it does not properly belong to this history, we cannot for- 
bear giving one view of this noble old man's travels when 
he was nearly seventy years old. Leaving Charles- 



166 HISTORY OF METHODISM 

ton January 7th, he rode through the swamps of east- 
ern South and North Carolina, suffering mucli from 
long rides, insufficient accommodations, and excessive 
cold. Bj the Sth of February he was at Norfolk, Ya., 
and then, faciug the cold March winds, he went north- 
ward through Eastern Maryland to Baltimore, which he 
reached on the 11th of March. ''^ By the 5th of April 
lie was in Peimsylvania ; on the 1st of May in New 
York, to attend the sessions of the general conference ; 
in June he was in Connecticut, suffering from high 
fever; passing into Massachusetts, he returned to New 
York, and held conference in the upper part of the 
State ; then through Western New York into Pennsyl- 
vania, among the mountains and the Germans ; across 
into Virginia, and back again to Maryland by Septem- 
ber 1st ; through Pennsylvania again to Ohio by the 
11th of September, and into Kentucky by the 7th of 
October ; southward through Kentucky, across Cum- 
berland Gap to East Tennessee, and thence to Charles- 
ton. f To any one who will take the map of the United 
States, and consider not only the geography but the 
topography of the country through which the old Bishop 
and his faithful young companion travelled, the accom- 
plishment of such a journey by such a man will appear 
almost incredible. 

He says that the session of the conference was a pleas- 
ant one, and that the preachers saw eye to eye in making 
the appointments. 

The ai-rano-ement of the Georp^a work was chancred. 

o O o 

Lovick Pierce left the Oconee District, and Joseph 
Tarpley was appointed to it. The Sparta District ceased 



* Asbury's Journal. 



t Ibid. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



167 



to be, and its circuits were divided between Joseph 
Tarpley and Lewis Myers. Lovick Pierce was stationed 
in Milledgeville. During this year a draft for soldiers 
was ordered, and, as preachers were not exchided, he 
w^as drafted with the mih'tia. The colonel of the regi- 
ment offered him the chaplaincy of it, which he ac- 
cepted, and was stationed at Savannah. Here he began 
to read medicine, and prepared himself for that loca- 
tion he saw was inevitable, under the then condition of 
things. 

At this conference Lovick Pierce brought up from 
the Broad River Circuit the recommendation of James 
Osgood Andrew. He was the son of John Andrew, tlie 
tirst native Georgian who had joined the travelling con- 
nection. James Andrew was not a promising-looking 
lad when he was somewhat reluctantly licensed by the 
quarterly conference to preac^h ; but he was a good boy, 
of good parentage, and might make a useful man, they 
thought. Preachers were needed, and so the confer- 
ence, on the recommendation of his presiding elder, re- 
ceived him on trial, and he was sent as second man, on 
the Saltcatcher Circuit, in Barnwell and Beaufort Dis- 
tricts, S. C. His own estimate of himself was low, but 
not lower than that of some who composed the quarter- 
ly conference which licensed him. It required the en- 
treaties of Epps Tucker to induce them to grant him 
license. He was required to preach, and after he came 
out of the church, mortified at his failure, he was coin- 
forted by one of the brethren saying to him, James, I 
voted for you, but if I had heard that sermon I would 
not have done it." James did not go to Camden to con- 
ference, but received through the preacher on the cir- 
cuit his appointment. A kind friend gave him a little 



168 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



black pony wliich lie called Cicero, and lie started for 
South Carolina, on his life-long work in the travelling 
ministry.* W. M. Kennedy was his presiding eldei", 
and it was well for the sensitive boy that he was, for 
Kennedy saw the brilliant mind of the young preacher, 
though the simple-hearted ))retliren of the quarterly 
conference did not. The crust on the diamond does 
not hide its beauty fi'om the lapidary, and W. M. Ken- 
nedy was a judge of jewels. Thomas Darley was now 
a local preacher in the bounds of the circuit, and he did 
the boy every servi(^e which judicious counsel could do. 
The year ended, and he had done well. He vvas not 
required to go to conference, and went on a visit home 
to receive his appointment to the Bladen Circuit, in 
North Carolina. He w^as now in charge of a large cir- 
cuit, with 600 members scattered over three counties 
in North Carolina and one district in South Carolina. 
There were many poor people in his circuit, and in one 
part of it the people had neither bread nor meat, but 
lived on peas, buttermilk, and honey. There were a 
number of Scotch Highlanders in the bounds of his 
work, who spoke nothing but Gaelic. They were rigid 
Presbyterians, but not sober, and the old Scotch pastor 
was himself too fond of a glass. The pious ones among 
them were known as new^ lights.f 

Amid these surroundings the future Bishop prepared 
for conference. There was at that time no examina- 
tion into literary proficiency. The great question was 
as to the young preacher's piety and zeal, and his success 
in winning souls, and his firmness in executing the 



* From himself. 

f His own reminiscence as published in S. O. Advocate, 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



169 



discdpline. While the circuit had not increased mucli 
in numbers, it was evident to the conference that young 
Andrew was not a failure. lie went now to his first 
conference, which met inMilledgeville. He was sent in 
charge of the Warren Circuit, in Georgia. It was large 
and important, extending from Warren to Richmond, 
and including Warren, Columbia, and Richmond Coun- 
ties. There were in it near 800 members — no small 
charge to a young man just admitted into full connec- 
tion. Gause, his companion, was somewhat eccentric, 
who, after travelling a little while as Methodist, formed 
a now extinct bod}^ known as the Benign Society, and 
died in communion with the Baptist Church."^ His next 
appointment was Charleston. He was the third man 
on the station, and two other young men, G. Christopher 
and Thomas Stanley, were with him. Timid and sensi- 
tive he always was ; but now, in his twenty-third year, to 
be thrust into a large city was a great trial to his cour- 
age ; but he did his work well. He was by this time 
a preacher of real power. He had been trained by con- 
stant practice for the pulpit. He had a mind of great 
native grasp, a lieart full of deep feeling, a taste of the 
nicest order, and his expression was full of earnestness, 
tenderness, and pathos. He was fervent and fearless. 
His imagination was glowing, and althongh he was but 
a yoang man, he commanded the admiration of all who 
heard him ; and though so young, was even then the 
peer of many of the foremost. There was a Scotch 
merchant in Charleston, named McFarland, who had a 
lovely daughter, Amelia. The family were all Metho- 
dists, and Amelia not the least devoted. The young 



* Leaves from the Diary of an Itinerant. 

8 



170 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



preaclier was not invniiierable, and in his fourth year 
he found himself deeply in love with his young parish- 
ioner, and engaged to be married to her. Now, there is 
nothing wonderful in this, and it requires no special 
amount of courage in a young preacher in this day to 
marry a good girl, when he has graduated into elder's 
orders ; but not so then. Tlie good xlsbury had reached 
old age unmarried, and so had McKendree, and Bruce, 
and Lee. The preachers who married, located ; and if 
.Andrew married ere he was twenty-three, his elders 
thought he would be lost to the Church as an itinerant. 
Lewis Myers, yet unmarried, was noted for the severity 
of his castigatioas when a young preacher was so 
infatuated as to marry early and when Andrew knew 
all this and took the gentle Amelia as he did to be his 
wedded wife, he evinced the depth and ardor of his 
affection. He married her, and proved the falsity of 
the predictions and the folly of the scourging, and 
during thirty years of toil she was the joy of his life 
and the light of his home. With his young bride he 
went to Wihnington, N. C, for two years, and then to 
Columbia, S. C, for one, and in 1820 returned to 
Georgia, and was stationed at Augusta, where we wilJ 
see him again. 

Samuel Dun woody was appointed at the Conference of 
1812 to go to the Mississippi District, but, being a mem- 
ber-elect to the General Conference, did not go, and was 
sent at this conference to St. Mary's, which had been a 
station for two years, but continued one only during this 
year. 

Samuel K. Hodges joined the conference this session, 
and was sent on Little River Circuit. He continued in 
the work in some relation until his death, in 1842, Pie 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



171 



was a leadins: man iu Georg^ia, and exerted a o^reat deal 
of influence both in elmrcli and state. He was a man 
of finest business capacity, and was an efficient presiding 
elder the larger part of the time that he was an effective 
preacher. He was presiding elder on the Cohinibns 
District, when he was taken seriously ill and died at liis 
home in Columbus, saying that for thirty years he had 
been trying to get ready for the change, and was not 
afraid to go. He did much for the Church in Georgia, 
and to his sagacious labors nnich of her present prosper- 
ity is owing. 

Anthony Senter, wdio had been a blacksmitli, and who 
had left his forge for the pulpit, was on the Sparta Cir- 
cuit this year. He was a good man, with a strong mind 
and a Avarm heart. He filled important places, and died 
of consumption in Georgetown, S. C, in 1817. 

Allen Turner's name appears as junior preacher on the 
Washington Circuit. It stood upon the minutes for forty 
years after this. He was an unlettered boy, but one w^hose 
very heart-depths had been stirred by his religious con- 
flicts, and who had found a rich peace in a simple faith. 
He was a man of very marked peculiarities, strong in 
his convictions of what was right, and bold in asserting 
them. He dressed in the style of the older Methodists, 
never allowed himself the luxury of a laugh, and ap- 
peared to be a man of great austerity, but was really a 
man of exquisite gentleness. He was afraid of no man, 
and fought fearlessly when his principles were attacked. 
Judge Longstreet, who was his great friend, wrote some 
articles in favor of instrumental music in churches. Uncle 
Allen assailed him right gallantly, and made a brave tilt, 
even though he failed to unhorse his antagonist. Did a 
preacher wear a beard^ or shave on Sunday, he might 



172 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



expect an attack from this censor omnium. Tie did 
]Tnicli very hard work, and did it cheerfully ; and when 
old age and mental weakness prevented him from doing 
regular and efficient service, he was always engaged in 
trying to do good. 

lie was wonderfully gifted in prayer, and was a man 
of mighty faith. lie was as well known and as highly 
respected as any man of his time, for " e^en his failings 
leaned to virtue's side." His good wife died some time 
after him, and his oldest son, Jno. Wesley, himself a very 
nseful man and a travelling preacher, passed aw^ay not 
long after his father. 

Thomas Stanley was from Greene County. He had 
applied for license to preach, and reconnnendation to 
the annual conference; but, before the presiding elder 
left for conference, his heart failed him, and he re- 
quested the elder to withhold the application for admis- 
sion. After Lovick Pierce, his presiding elder, had gone 
to conference, Stanley's conscience gave him no rest, 
and he rode rapidly after him, and breaking down one 
horse, secured another, and reached the conference in 
time to have his name presented. He did good work 
for six years, and then located, and settled in Athens, 
where he was made rector of the Female Academy, 
While there, Athens wa-s made a station and he was 
employed to take charge of it, and w^as thus the first 
stationed preacher there. During his residence his 
oldest son, a promising boy, died. While he bowed his 
head submissively, the stroke w^as a heavy one to him, 
and life was no more to him what it had been ; and 
although he lived for a few years afterward, that blow 
Ayas thought to have broken his heart. He removed to 
La Grange in its early settlement, and thei-e ended his 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 17S5-1SG5. 



173 



pilgrimage. He was a gentle, gifted, and for that 
day cultivated man. His piety was of the deepest 
nature, and he was alwaj'S devoted to the church of his 
early love. 

Nicholas Talley, who came this year to the Louisville 
Circuit, was one of three brothers who all entered the 
South Carolina Conference and did good work in it. 
They were Nicholas, Alexander, and Jno. Wesley ; of 
them only one now remains, an aged, superannuated 
preacher, in the South Georgia Conference. Nicholas 
Talley was located to preach by Dr. Lovick Pierce, when 
he was on the Oconee District. He was at the time living 
in Greene County. He entered upon his work and 
continued in it till his death fifty years afterwards. He 
was often in Georgia before the division of the South 
Carolina Conference. He then remained with that 
body, and continued to labor in it to the last. He was 
a very useful and a veiy solid man. The Church was 
always built up wherever he went. He lived in Colum- 
bia, S. C, for many years, and was much beloved. He 
was an elegant old gentleman, full of grace and cour- 
tesy. 

Lucius Q. C. De Tampert, now in his second year, 
was stationed in Augusta. He was from Oglethorpe 
County, and was of French extraction. Li our chapter 
of Methodism in the cities vv^e have been able to give a 
sketch of him, furnished by Bishop Wightman, who 
knew him well. As is usual in times of war, there was 
but little religious prosperity. Geoi-gia was threatened 
by the Indians on the wes.t, and by the English fleet on 
the sea-shore, and troops were drafted, and some of 
them called for. There was but little to report to the 
conference, which met in Fayetteville, N. C, January 



174 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



12, 1814. At this conference Lovick Pierce, Osborn 
Rogers, James E. Glenn, Joseph Travis^ all of whom 
had labored in Georgia, were located. 

Lovick Pierce had now been a man-ied man for two 
years. Up to this time no man had continued long in 
the itinerancy after his marriage, and, indeed, it was a 
necessit}^ that a married man should locate. There were 
no parsonages. The circuits were of immense size. 
There was no provision to shelter or feed his family. 
IIis_2-?wmi5e'6/ income was only $80 per year. So well 
recognized was this fact, that no preacher was under 
any disapproval who retired, and a glad welcome always 
awaited him when he was able to come back. For sev- 
eral years the name of Lovick Pierce is no more seen 
on tlie minutes, and two general conferences convene, 
and his is not anion£>: the list of deleo-ates. We can but 
deplore the sad necessity which drove him from the 
held at the time he w^as so much needed. lie married a 
Miss Foster. Her father, Col. Foster, was an energetic, 
active, and successful planter, and a leading member 
of the Church ; and her brother, Col. Thos, Foster, a 
lawyer of distinction, and afterwards a member of Con 
gress. She was a woman of remarkable character, and 
has a right to a place in the History of the Church m 
Georgia. She was one of those women w^ho labored 
]iot with Paul, but with one of Paul's successors in 
the Gospel, for many weary years. She had married 
a Methodist preacher. She loN^ed his work, and she 
never impeded him in his way. A home was neces- 
sary, and she remained at it and brought up the 
children, while her faithful husband was away at his 
appointments. She never complained of her lot, but 
bore her part bravely. She deserves a place beside 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



175 



]iiin, so honored and so loved, in the affections of the 
Church. 

The same presiding elders were appointed at this 
conference to the same districts. There were but four 
travelling elders in the State, apart from Myers and 
Tarpley, and the three best workers among them, Mason, 
Hill, and Kussell, had small stations. The circuits were 
left almost entirely to the charge of young and inex- 
perienced men. 

The war, too, was upon the country still. Financial 
depressions, losses and anxieties, were on every hand. 
The Church suffered, and there was decline during the 
year. 

In December, Bishop Asbury came on his last tour to 
Georgia. Sick and aged, he still worked on, and was 
now on his way to conference. Crossing the river at 
Elbert County, he met Joseph Tarpley, and they went 
thence to Samuel Remberts'. His heart was cheered 
with the accounts Tarpley gave him of camp-meetings 
on the various circuits, and while at Remberts', he re- 
ceived from John Early an account of that famous 
camp-meeting in Prince Edward County, Ya., where a 
thousand persons were converted. He left Elbert and 
came to Athens, where he found Dr. Brown had much 
improved things at the college. He went thence to 
Milledgeville, stopping at John Turner's, in Hancock, 
Nicholas Wave's, andBro. Holt's, and reached Milledge- 
ville. This was the last conference he ever attended in 
Georgia, and the last Hope Hull ever attended at all, 
as it was first to which Jas. O. Andrew, then closing 
his second year, had come. Milledgeville was a spright- 
ly young town ten years old, the capital of the State. 
A church had been built, which was not yet finished, 



176 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



and Bishop Andrew mentions in his reminiscences that 
the stumps were still in the streets. Bishop Asbury was 
suffering mucli with his cough, and could barely preach, 
but tried to do so, and for the last tim.e spoke to the 
cliurch in Georgia, and to the preachers who loved him 
so well, and who now wept most of all that they should 
see his face no more. There were a number of valua- 
ble men who retired from the field — men who had done 
faithful work in Georgia — Jonathan Jackson, Wm. 
Capers, Henry D. Green, James C. Rogers and James 
Russell, all located, and while there were a number 
who entered the work, there were none among them 
who afterwards reached any considerable distinction. 
Lewis Ilobbs, the beautiful Christian of whom we have 
spoken, who had worn out his life in hard labor in the 
AVest, died during the 3'ear. 

Lewis Myers and Joseph Tarpley still continue on 
the districts. Milledgeville, which has been a station, 
ceases to have independent existences, and becomes an 
appointment in the Cedar Creek Circuit. There was a 
very small decrease in the membership, and there are 
evidences of a state of stagnation in church work. 

The conference met in Chai*leston, Dec. 23, 1815. 
It was a sad meeting. Only once, since the South 
Carolina Conference was organized, had Francis Asbury 
ever been absent ; but now he came not, and would come 
no more forever. lie, resolute to the last, had made an 
earnest effort to reach the conference, and had come nigh 
to the city, when he grew too feeble to travel farther, and 
reluctantly consented to remain in his sick-room. Mc- 
Kendree was present, and presided ; daily communica- 
tion was kept up between Asbury, thirty miles away, 
and his brethren. We know nothing, other than the 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA. 1785-1865. 



177 



minutes tell ns, of this last conference Asbury strove to 
reach. 

The appointments to the districts continued as they 
had been. A few new preachers came to the State, 
and Thomas Darley was sent to the Louisville Circuit. 
There were a few otlier elders in the conference besides 
himself- — Hill, Dickinson, Hutto, Sewell, Jno. B. Grlenn, 
and Whitman C. Hill. The most notable man of the 
corps of preachers was Thomas Darley, an Englishman 
by biith, and had been one of Tarleton's troopers. 

Of his encounter with Samuel Cowles, of Washing- 
ton's Legion, we have already told. By some means 
Darley was left in America when the English troops 
were withdrawm, and under the ministry of Isaac Smith 
he was converted. He travelled a few years, then located, 
then re-entered the work, and in it died. His family 
resided in Jefferson County, and he travelled the works 
to which he was sent until 1830, when he was superan- 
nuated. He removed to Harris, then a new county, in 
1832, and died there in great peace during that year. 
Dunwoody says of him : " He w^as a powerfully awak- 
ening preacher, and many a hard-hearted sinner was 
made to quail before the convincing power of the truth." 
He was eminently successful in winning souls to Christ. 

Among the new names which appear this year we 
find the familiar name of Dabney P. Jones. He was 
on the Broad River Circuit. He was a homely little 
man, of good mind, and of great sprightliness of char- 
acter. He travelled some years, and then located, and 
thus remained until his death long afterwards. He was 
a devoted temperance man, and an eminently success- 
ful worker in the cause for which he was State lec- 
turer. He was very popular and veiy useful ; he 
8^ 



178 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



labored efficiently in the local ranks, and moving in the 
early settlements of the new purchase west of the Flint 
Eiver, he found ample field for all his labors. He 
preached the first sermon ever preached by a Methodist 
in the city of Newman. 

James Bellah was a junior preacher of the Sparta 
Circuit, He was already a married man, and had 
a home. He was a man of good parts, and very useful. 
He travelled many of the hardest and some of the best 
circuits in Georgia. He was a tall, slender man, of 
dignified and impressive look, and preached with much 
earnestness and pathos. He belonged to the third 
class of Methodist preachers, and was the peer of any 
among them. He came after the unmarried pioneer 
had laid out the fields for tillage^ — when there was 
liard work and rough work demanded, when the 
majority of the people were comparatively uneducated, 
but when the coarser features of the frontier had 
passed away. He came when married men of experi- 
ence were in demand, but when the Church had made 
no provision for their support, and who must, as he did, 
support themselves. He came from the purest motives, 
and labored hard, and died in the work. He was tlie 
brother of Morgan Bellah, who, the very year liis health 
failed, took up his work where he laid it down, and who 
has continued a good and useful man to this day. 

Elijah Bird was sent to the Saltilla Circuit. He was 
a South Carolinian, a good man, possessed of marked 
peculiarities, but noted through a long life for his love 
for the Church. For many years he was local and his 
home was long a preachers' resting-place. His wife 
was remarkable for her saintly character, and did much 
to assist him in his work. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



179 



The minutes— our onl}^ authority — tell a sad story 
this year, for there was a decline of over 700 members 
reported. As most of the preachers were young men, 
inexperienced in keeping records, it is probable tliere 
were statistical errors, but still the fact remains that the 
decline which began in 1812 still goes steadily onward. 

At this conference the deleo-ates to the 2:eneral con- 
ference, which was to meet in May, 1816, were elected- 
They consisted of Lewis Myers, Daniel Asbury, Joseph 
Tarpley, W. M. Kennedy, Thomas Mason, llilliard 
Judge, Sam'l Dunwoody, Anthony Senter, Jno. B. 
Glenn, James N^orton, Solomon Bryan, Henry Bass, 
Reuben Tucker, and Alexander Talley, not one of 
whom are living now. 

The conference adjourned, and Asbury, as soon he 
could, turned his face northward. He wished if it were 
God's will that he might be able to reach Baltimore by 
the time the general conference met in May. He had 
gone by slow stages towards Baltimore. He had 
reached Richmond, and preached his last sermon sitting 
upon a table in the old church thei*e. He began his 
journey again, and in the house of a kind friend in 
Spottsylvania County, March 21, 1816, God gave to 
his beloved sleep, and Francis Asbury rested from his 
toils. From 1767 to 1816 he had been unwearying in 
his labors ; nearly fifty years he had spent in striving 
to win souls. He had worked on two continents, and 
had travelled more miles on horseback over America, 
than perhaps any man in it. He had suffered much 
physical pain, for he was never at any time perfectly 
well. He had braved every danger and been exposed 
to every privation, yet he had never swerved. Than 
Francis Asbury a nobler soul never lived — a braver, 



180 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



truer, gentler, more unselfish ; and to no man does 
Georgia owe a greater debt than to him. With his 
death we may close this chapter and resume our 
story Avith the account of the General Conference in 
1816. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



181 



CHAPTEE VII. 
1816-1823. 

General Conference of 1816— New Bishops— The Cabinet— R. R. 
Roberts — Conference at Columbia— Andrew Hammill — Death 
OF Hull — Asbury — Morgan — R. Green — George Hill— Jno. L, 
Jerry — John Simmons — Thomas Samford — General Confer- 
ence OF 1820 — Isaac Smith— Jno. B. Chappell — James Dunwoody 
— John Howard — Wm. J. Parks — Thomas L. Wynn— Peyton L. 
Wade — Elijah Sinclair — Constant Decline— Cause of it. 

The General Conference met in May, 1816, in Balti- 
more. McKendree, tlie only Bisliop living, was present 
and presided. This was an interesting and an impor- 
tant session. The dread of episcopal power seems to 
have been growing, and the same spirit which had called 
forth the effort to make the presiding elder's office 
elective, for the protection of the travelling preachei's, 
now gave being to a petition from certain local 
preachers in Georgia, for redress of grievances. Wlio 
these were we do not know ; bnt we may conjecture 
that Epps Tucker and Britton Capel, who afterwa]*ds 
united with the Methodist Protestant Chnrch, and were 
strong men, were the leaders in the movement. The 
right to deacons' and elders' orders had already been 
accorded to the class petitioning, but this memorial 
asked for representation for them in the Annual Con- 
ferences, and the privilege of having salaries for their 
ministerial services."^ This was probably the first ap- 



* General Conference Journals. 



182 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



pearance of that cloud which burst forth in such a 
storm six years later. The usual committees were 
elected, and Lewis Myers was placed on his old com- 
mittee on Episcopacy. Again the question of electing 
presiding elders was up on a motion from New Eng- 
land. After a very prolonged discussion the vote was 
taken, and the motion lost by a large majority. 

Two additional Bishops were elected — Enoch George 
and li. E. Roberts. The amount to be allowed a trav- 
elling preacher was increased from $80 to $100 per 
annum, and for the first time it was required of the 
charges that provision should be made for the family 
sustenance of the preachers. A course of reading and 
study was recommended for candidates for membership 
in the conference.'^ 

A committee was appointed, called the Committee of 
Safety. It consisted of Joshua Soule, Enoch Geoi'ge, 
and Samuel Parker. The report of this committee is 
an interesting document. The committee found the 
Church infected with many heresies. Pelagianism and 
Socinianism were preached in many of the societies. 
The discipline was no't properly enforced. Pews were 
sold. The civil law was used to collect ministerial sup- 
port ; this was evidently in New England, though not 
so stated. The rule on dress was disregarded. Some 
preachers were arbitrary in administering discipline. 
The circuits were too small, and there was too great a 
tendency to confine ministerial labor entirely to the 
Sabbath. 

A Methodist magazine was again ordered, which be- 
gan its life in 181.8. 



* Journals. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



183 



James Axley brought forward his favorite measure to 
forbid the members of the Church from distilling and 
selling whiskey, and at last he had a resolution passed 
forbidding preachers from doing it. At this conference 
the report of the committee on the vexed question of 
slavery was carried after a motion of concurrence had 
been made by George Pickering, a leading member 
from New England. This resolution was as follows : 
" Therefore, no slaveholder shall be eligible to any offi- 
cial station in our church hereafter, where the laws of 
the State in which he lives will admit of emancipation, 
and permits the liberated slave to enjoy freedom." This 
resolution was long known as the compromise measure, 
and was the cause of much after-discussion. 

The Book Concern, though it had grown from nothing 
in 1796 to a capital of $80,000 in 1816, was somewhat 
embarrassed ; a change of officers was made, and Joshua 
Soule and Thomas Mason, who had travelled in Geor- 
gia, were elected agents. On the 24th of May, 1816, 
the conference adjourned.^ 

With the death of Asbury, and the senior episcopacy 
of McKendree, some very silent but important changes 
entered into episcopal methods. From that time the 
cabinet, as the assembly of the presiding elders and 
Bishops was called, became an institution. Asbury con- 
sulted no one in making his appointments. Tie knew 
every part of the work ; he knew every preacher ; he had 
great and not unwarranted confidence in his own judg- 
ment ; he had been invested with this almost absolute 
authority when the Church was small and the preachers 
few, and, conscious of purity in its exercise, he was un- 



* J ournals. 



184 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



willing to surrender any part of it. But McKenclree, 
with more caution and better judgment, clearly saw 
that appointments could not be wisely made by the 
mere motion of an}^ one man's mind, and he felt the 
need of and called for consultation with the elders ; from 
this time it became a fixed custom. To many of our 
readers, unfamiliar with the mode of making appoint- 
ments at conference, an explanation of the manner of 
makino; them mav ]iot be uninteresting:. 

The Bishop calls the presiding elders into secret ses- 
sion soon after the meetino; of the conference. In this 
council each presiding elder is the guardian of his own 
district, seeing after the interests of both preachers and 
churches under his care. He states to the Bishop and 
the council what he thinks is best for the Church in his 
district ; what circuits shall be formed ; what stations 
established ; what preachers shall be changed, and where 
they shall be placed. The whole council consider the 
matter and make suggestions. The Bishop sits as um- 
pire, and, after making hisownyiews known, makes the 
final decision. 

McKendree was now almost an old man. Years of 
the hardest work had worn him down, and though he 
was still a stronger man than Asbury had been for 
many years, he was by no means yigorous. Enoch 
George and R. R. Roberts, two men of full strength and 
in middle life, were now his colleagues. 

Roberts was a Western Mary lander, who had spent 
his youth in the wilds of Western Pennsjdyania. He 
w^as a mighty hunter and loyed the frontier and frontiers- 
men with all their ways. He had been con yerted early, 
and had early begun to preach. His preaching was of 
high order, and he especially evinced fine administra- 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



185 



tive qualities, and after having been a presiding elder, 
was selected at the General Conference of 1816 for 
Bishop. He was a man of large brain, large body, and 
large heart. lie removed, after his election to tlie 
Episcopacy, to the wilds of Indiana, and lived and died 
in a log-cabin. His modesty was of the highest order, 
and the story of some of the most striking manifesta- 
tions of it has been carefnlly preserved. One of these 
had its scene in Sonth Carolina, and Travis knew the 
preacher concerned in it."^ Roberts, on his way to con- 
ference, had reached the home of a Methodist in South 
Carolina, after dark one evening. The family had al- 
ready sopped. The Bishop made the ordinary request 
of a benighted stranger for lodging ; this was granted, 
and he came in. He was a man of hnge form, was 
dressed very plainlj^, and had nothing about him that 
betokened a man of position. The family were in a 
pleasant mood ; the young preacher, a sprightly and 
agreeable man, was with them, and the Bishop was 
expected. The hours passed merrily by, but the Bishop 
did not come ; the quiet stranger in the corner did not 
receive much attention, and when the hour came for 
retiring he went to his room. In a little while the 
young preacher followed. He found the old man on 
his knees in prayer and became assured that he was a 
Christian. When he arose from prayer he said to 
him : 

" You are a member of the Church ? " 
"Yes, sir." 

" Which way are you travelling ? " 
" To Columbia." 



* Travis' Autobiograpliy. 



186 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



Why, that is where onr conference meets ; we are 
expecting the Bisliop ; do 3'on know him ? " 
" Yes, sir ; I travelled with him.'- 
" Why ! did you ? What is your name ? " 
" Roberts." 

" Roberts ! wliy, not Bishop Roberts ? " 

" Well, that's what they call me." 

The young preacher insisted upon calling the family 
up and having supper, but the Bisliop would not con- 
sent, nor would lie allow him to make him known. The 
next morning the Bishop left, and wlien he met his 
young brother in Columbia he was especially kind to 
him. 

The conference met at Columbia, December. 25, 
1816. Bishops McKendree and George were present. 
Bishop George had visited his old friends in Georgia, 
and now joined McKendree at Columbia. McKendree 
had made his journey through the Cherokee Nation to 
the seat of the conference.^ There was considerable 
change, as there always had been, among the Georgia 
preachers, but none in the shape of the work ; cliurch 
affairs were moving in the old ruts. 

Charles Dickinson was appointed to the Ocmulgee 
Circuit. ^'It was," says Dunwoody, "a large and labo- 
rious circuit, consisting of twenty-eight appointments for 
twenty-eight days. It included Twiggs, Wilkinson, 
parts of Jones and Pulaski Counties. The rides were 
long — a distance of from twelve to eighteen miles was 
between them." Dickinson needed a helper, and Lewis 
Myers employed James Dunwoody, the younger brother 
of Samuel Dunwoody, to assist him. There were some 



* McKendree' s Life. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



187 



parts of the circuit in Twiggs, where the population was 
considerable and the people wealthy ; but in the larger 
part of the work the peo]3]e were few and very poor. 
Charles Dickinson was a good man, of no great gifts,'^ 
but full of zeal and of very deep piety. He only trav- 
elled a few years, w^hen he was taken sick at his home 
in Washington County, where he died in great peace, f 

Whitman C. Hill had with him on the Little River 
Circuit a young man wdio was to do great and good 
work for the Church. This w^as Andi-ew Hammill. He 
was from South Carolina, and was of Ii'ish descent; he 
had been early a Christian, entered the conference at 
tw^enty years old, and travelled for nearly eighteen 
years, when he died. He was a nuin of remarkable 
gentleness and piety, a diligent student, and distinguished 
for the purity and clearness of his style as a preacher. 
We shall often see him in the progress of this history, 
since he was from this time to that of his death con- 
stantly engaged in the Georgia work.:}: 

Anderson Eay, who w^as this year on the Warren Cir- 
cuit, was for a long time a useful travelling and local 
preacher. He was a man of moderate gifts, but of 
great industry and piety'. The corps of preachers in 
Georgia was not at this time remarkable for mental 
power. There were some men of excellent capacities, 
but the most of the preachers were young and inexpe- 
rienced men, of ordinary ability, and either from this or 
some other cause to us unknowni the Church continued 
to lose ground, and a further decrease of 500 members 
was reported this year. The next conference was to 
meet in January, 1818, and w^as to liave met in Louis- 



* Dunwoody's Life. 



t Ibid. 



f Minutes. 



188 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



ville, but the appointment was changed to Augusta, and 
it met in that city. Bishops McKendree and Roberts 
were present. James INoi'ton^ wliom we remember as 
one of the early workers in lower Georgia, was the 
travelling companion of Bishop McKendree. The Bishop 
and himself had left the seat of the Mississippi conference 
attended by Thomas Griffin, who conducted tliem as far 
as Fort Claiborne, in the Tombigbee country. They 
then entered the Indian countr3^ The creeks and rivers 
were higli, and the country for miles was inundated. 
After many perils, in one of which they narrowly es- 
caped being drowned, they reached the east bank of the 
Chattahoochee, and, although the Indians were not peace- 
able, made their way safely to the white settlements. 
They finally reached the hospitable home of John Lncas, 
near Sparta, and, in company with Lewis Myers, reached 
Augusta. " There was," says Bishop Paine, in his Life 
of McKendree, ^^some delicate and eventful business? 
which was attended to. What this was we cannot tell." 
This conference met Jannary 27, 1818.^ 

During tliis year Hope Hull followed Asbury to 
fleaven. He bad been a local preacher for twenty-five 
years, but had been a zealous worker for the Church all 
the time. Hull was in all respects a great man. In 
person he had large body and short limbs. He had a 
large, commanding head, a fine eye, and exceedingly 
bushy eyebrows.f He was a man of quick decision 
and of great fi^rmness. Like most great men, he possessed 
striking peculiarities, some of them relating to little 
things. One of these was ahvays to wear an old hat. 
As old as Father Hull's hat, was a proverb in North- 



* Paine's Life of McKendree. f Dr. Pierce, in Sprague. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



189 



east Georgia/^ His clothing was always too large for 
him, especially his boots. Once, the story goes, he 
complained of a pebble in his boot ; when he drew it 
off, it had in it a small pair of candle-snuffers. He 
had remarkable penetration, and was thought to possess 
the power of discerning spirits. One day in class he 
met a man who said he was like old David, and had his 
infirmities. " Yes," said Father Hull, " and I am afraid 
you are like old Noah too — get drunk sometimes." f It 
w^as a centre shot, for the man was much given to the 
bottle. He had great influence with the leading men 
of the State, and the State University owed much to his 
fostering care. He bequeatlied his name and his vir- 
tues to his children, one of whom, Asbury Hull, was a 
leading lawyer and statesman in Georgia, wdio died a 
few years since ; and another. Dr. Henry Hull, once 
professor in the University, and who still lives, a useful 
Methodist of Athens. 

It was now necessary to make some changes in the 
district presidents : Joseph Tarpley took the Oconee 
District, and Sanil. K. Hodges was placed on tlie Ogee- 
chee ; Lewis Myei-s was sent to Charleston ; Nicholas 
Talley came to Georgia again, to the important Sparta 
Circuit, and James Dun woody, just admitted, was sent 
with him as junior preacher. James Dun woody still lives 
(1875), although he has been for many years, against his 
will, superannuated. He was a long time a very de- 
voted, laborious, and self-sacrificing preacher, whom we 
shall often see. 

During this year Samuel Dunwoody came from South 
Carolina, and preached a stirring and able sermon on 



* Bishop Andrew, in Sprague. 



t Ibid. 



190 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



the love of money. He attributed nearly all the evils 
which the world had known to covetousness, and espe- 
cially charged the decline of Methodism to this source. 
Solomon said in his day there were those who said 
erroneously the old days were best; and tliough Mr. 
Wesley endorsed Solomon, he said sadly, before liis 
death, that the Methodists were no longer wdiat they 
were. And still the same cry is heard ; but there seems 
to have been much truth in Dunwoody's statement, for 
there vras another year of decline, and another loss of 
500 members. For now^ nearly eight years there had 
been only decline. The churches lost in members and 
lost spiritual power. Even the Apalachee Circuit— to 
which Dunwoody was sent, Barnet's health having 
failed — although one of the best in the conference, was 
in a cold, dead state. 

Hodges, the new presiding elder, was eminently fitted 
for the office. He preached well, and in managing a 
district had few superiors. He was about six feet high, 
of sallow complexion, dark eyes, was very fluent in 
speech, and his judgment was of the best order. He 
had entered the conference with Jas. O. Andrew, and 
nominated him for the episcopal office, to which he was 
elected. 

Elisha Callaway was junior preacher on the Saltilla 
Circuit. This was a hard circuit, and Callawaj^ rarely 
had any other kind. He was an admirable frontiersman, 
warm-hearted, cheerful, courageous. He was a man 
of rare ability of character, full of generosity and ten- 
derness. He transferred finally to Alabama. 

The conference met in Camden, Bishop Roberts 
presiding. A new district w^as now laid out, consisting 
of circuits wliicli had previously been in the Ogeechee 



m GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 17S5-1SC5. 



191 



and Oconee Districts. It was called the Athens Dis- 
trict. Joseph Tarpley was placed upon it. It consisted 
of the Broad Eiver, Grove, Apalachee, Alcovi, and 
Sparta Circuits. The Grove Circuit is the only one of 
these circuits whose boundaries we have not endeavored 
to indicate. It consisted of those churches and preach- 
ing-places which were in the upper part of the State, 
bordering on the Indian Nation. The present counties 
of Hart, Madison, Franklin, Jackson, and a part of 
Clarke, were included in it. David Garrison, an elder, 
was this year in charge of it. He had been a local 
preacher for several years before he joined the confer- 
ence, having been licensed in 1806. He travelled con- 
secutively for ten years, and when his health gave way 
he was superannuated, and continued in tliat relation 
until the year 1842, when he died. He was a sober, 
pious, humble Christian, a plain, practical, spiritual, and 
useful preacher, a great lover of the doctrines and dis- 
cipline of tlie Church. His voice failed him ere his 
consciousness, and he signified that all was well by rais- 
ing his hand."^ 

Wo B. Barnett was presiding elder of the Oconee 
District, which included only five circuits, but they em- 
braced all the western and lower parts of the State. 
Samuel K. Hodges had the Ogeechee District. Asbury 
Morgan was in charge of the Ohoopee and Darien 
Circuits. He was now a deacon, and had travelled two 
circuits in South Carolina before he came to Georgia. 
He was born in Mecklenburg County, Va., Aug. 25, 
1797, and before his twenty-first year was a travelling 
preacher. He advanced rapidly, and after he had 



* Rev. W. J. Parks. 



192 



fflSTORY OF METHODISM 



travelled ten years, while stationed in Charleston, he 
died of the stranger fever, the 25th of September, 
1828. lie was not a man of splendid talents, but was 
acceptable and useful.'^ Ills widow long survived him, 
and one of his daughters became the wife of J. Blakely 
Smith, who was himself a useful travelling preacher, 
and was long secretary of Georgia and South Georgia 
Conferences, and who died while he was presiding elder 
of the Americus District, in 1871. 

Raleigh Green, another young man, was junior 
preacher on the Apalachee Circuit. He travelled only 
a few years, and then located ; afterwards, when an old 
man, he returned to the work, and in it he died. He 
was engaged in worldly business, aiid, like most preach- 
ers, was not successful, but preserved his Christian 
character in the midst of his losses.f 

George Hill, the junior preacher on the Warren Cir- 
cuit, was destined to an early grave, but to a life of 
great usefulness before he was called away. He was 
born in Charleston, and was the son of Paul Hill, Esq. 
He was a brilliant boy, and began to preach at twenty 
years old. He travelled for only nine years, but in that 
time was placed in the most important charges. He 
was a powerful and an eminently successful preacher. 

Mathew Eaiford was received this year. He was only 
nineteen years old. He travelled several years in South 
Carolina, and afterwards on some of the hardest circuits 
in Georgia. He went as an assistant to Isaac Smith on 
the Creek Mission. He was a faithful man all his life, 
and " though sorely afflicted in his last years, retained 
his Christian confidence strong^ to the end. He died at 



* IVIinutes. 



t Ibid. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



193 



Dr. James Thweat's, in Monroe County, in his fifty-third 
year." Asbury Morgan visited Darien, then a prosperous 
town at the mouth of the Altamaha, this year. It had 
been settled in 1735 by the Scotch Highlanders, but 
the settlement had been broken up ; but now, as cotton 
sought shipment from the interior by waj^of the largest 
river in the State, the town at its mouth was growing in 
importance. The use of the only church in it was re- 
fused to the Methodists ; but Morgan secured a counting- 
house near the river, and a plank was made a bridge 
from the bluff; w^hen the worshippers were molested, 
the plank was used as a drawbridge. In 1831, Brother 
Shackleford, a devoted Methodist, moved to the place, 
and a church w^as soon built, and a revival followed — the 
first in Darien."^ 

Jno. L. Jei'ry w^as a junior preacher on the Broad 
River Circuit this year. He was of Frencli descent, 
his father having come over with General La Fayette, 
to assist the American colonies. lie joined the Church 
when young, and entered the conference at twenty-five 
years of age. He was on the frontier most of his life, 
travelling the hardest circuits in East and West Florida. 
In 1827, after ten years' work, he married, and located 
and settled in East Florida. After seven years in retire- 
ment, he re-entered the travelling connection, and re- 
mained in it till he died. He died of congestion of the 
brain in 1859. He was a very brave and a very self- 
sacrificino; man, and one of p'reat faitli. On one occa- 
si on, at St. Augustine, he was threatened by a priest 
with imprisonment.f He fearlessly pointed to the 
American fiag, and defied him. At another time, as he 



* Dr Myers, in S. C. Adrocate. 
9 



f Minutes, 



194 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



^ras riding alone throngli the Florida wilds, lie found 
himself near a ferry, without means to pay for crossing. 
Dismounting, he prayed to God for help, and on his 
w^ay back to his horse found a Spanish doubloon. He 
was not an educated man, but a man of great common 
sense, and was vejy successful in his work. His name 
is precious to Florida Methodists. 

The Ogeechee District was now enlarged by the addi- 
tion of the Black Swamp Circuit in South Carolina. 

The chapter now drawing towards its end is one of 
the saddest in the history of Methodism in Georgia. 
Thei-e had been no advance, but a constant and pamf ul 
decline. The State was prosperous, but the Church was 
never less so. So the minute figures say, and we have 
no access to other sources, for we are possessed of less 
information concerning this time than of any period 
before or since. The Methodist Magazine began its 
life in ISIS, but there is in it no news of Georgia work. 
Better times were coming. During the year 1S19 
Bisliop Capers, who was stationed in Savannah, writes 
that Warren County, in which John Mote and Jno. L. 
Jerry wei-e the preachers, was in a flame throughout, 
and at the camp-meeting there were over one hundred 
converted, and over t^vo hundred had joined the Church. 
There was a great revival in Angusta, under Henry. 
Bass, and altogether a better promise in the conference. 

John Simmons was on the Apalachee Circuit this 
year, and received another appointment, when he lo- 
cated. He was zealons, simple-hearted, and devotedly 
pious, and labored cheerfully as long as he lived. He 
located and did good work in Butts and Pike Counties ; 
after the settlement of Oxford, he fixed his home there, 
and there educated his sons: Dr. Jas. P. Sinnnons, now 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1805. 



195 



dead, who was a useful layman ; the Rev. W. A. Sim- 
mons, of the Northern Georgia, and the Kev. Jno. C. 
Simmons, of the Pacific Conference. During the year 
for the first time in several, there was some increase, 
the minutes reporting 7,166 whites against 7,083 of the 

Year before. 
«/ 

Wm. Capers was in Savannah this year, and Henry 
Bass in Augusta, and in l)oth of these cities there was 
decided improvement in church matters. 

The conference met in Charleston, January 13, 1820. 

Bishop George presided. He was among his old 
friends and co-laborers. Over twenty years before he 
he had left South Carolina and Georgia, after having 
done noble work in them, and now he i-eturns to his old 
home with the highest ofiice in the gift of the Church. 
James Dunwoody, who was received at this conference 
into full connection, says of the Bishop : " He was 
greatly animated, and I think I have scarcely ever 
known a more thrilling or solemn season." * 

The three districts retain their shape ; but Burnett, 
who was in the Wire-Grass Country, and whose health 
had failed him, retired, and James Norton took his 
place. He had been the pioneer in this region years 
before, and had first proclaimed the Gospel to its scat- 
tered inhabitants. He had been hard at work, honored 
by his brethren with successive seats in the General 
Conference, and deeply beloved by his Bishops, espe- 
cially by McKendree, with whom he had been a travel- 
ing companion. James O. Andrew was sent to Augusta. 
It w^as his eighth appointment. He had developed 
wonderfully as a preacher, and had now a wife and two 



* Dunwoody's Life. 



190 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



children, and was the first married preacher ever sta- 
tioned in that city. 

Thomas Samford, who was at work in Georgia, this 
year began a ministerial life, which continued till his 
death nearly fifty years afterwards. lie was a poor 
boy, the son of a widowed mother. Placed in the family 
of a good South Carolina Methodist, he was converted, 
and his faithfuhiess in his duties kept him with them 
for some years. lie came to Geoi-gia and became a 
preacher. He possessed a mind of very fine texture, 
and was a diligent stndent. He was a small man, 
retiring, absent-minded, timid, but remarkable for his 
pulpit gifts. Few men have had higher repute for the 
pulpit power than he had. He was placed on the best 
cii'cuits, stations, and districts while in Georgia. He 
afterwards transferred to Louisiana, and thence to 
Texas, where during the war he died. He w^as noted 
for his gentleness and his charitableness, and was uni- 
versally beloved. We shall see him often. 

At this conference, the delegates to the General 
Confei-ence of 1820 were elected. Tliey were : Sam'l 
Dunwoody, Wm. Kennedy, Joseph Travis, James 
Norton, Lewis Myers, Daniel Asbur^^, Wm. Capers, 
James O. Andrew, and Sam'l K. Hodges; of these 
every one except Father Asbury had travelled in 
Georgia. It was a large and very able delegation, 
and it was w^ell that it was so, for there were try- 
ing days just ahead. McCaine was elected secre- 
tary, and the Bishops presided in turn. The im- 
portant Committee on Episcopacy was elected l)y 
ballot, and Lewis Myers was again placed upon it. 
Wm. Capers was placed on the committee to consider 
the local preacher question, and Kennedy was chairman 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1805. 



197 



oil the Sunday-school Committee. The session was 
long and stormy. Some cases of appeal from the 
Baltimore Conference, which had located two travel- 
ling preachers with-ont their consent, called out the 
strong men. Wm. Capers on the side of the appellants, 
and Stephen George Roszell, in defence of the con- 
ference, the other. Then came the election of a 
Bishop, and Joshua Soule was elected over Nathan 
Bangs. James Axley brought forward the slavery 
question, as he always brought forward something to 
excite discussion. It was left as before. By far 
the most exciting and important measure was the 
pro]X)sal for the election of presiding elders. From 
1808, at every general conference, this measure luid 
been presented, and three times it had been rejected. 
It w^as now, however, brought forward again by D. 
Ostrander, of ^^ew York, and finally carried ; with 
this action of the body McKendree and Soule were 
much displeased. They believed it an unconstitu- 
tional, and a radical and dangerous change. Soule 
refused to be ordained a Bishop while this law re- 
mained in the discipline, and McKendree refused 
to carry out the measure until the conferences 
should decide by a three-fourths vote that they 
desired it. Those questions of the power of the 
general conference, which were to be so ably dis- 
cussed in 184:4, were now for tlie fi:rst time broach- 
ed. Apprehending serious trouble, the execution 
of the law was by vote of the conference suspended 
until 1824 ; and as Soule refused the office, no other 
Bishop was elected, and after a most exciting session 
the body adjourned. 

James O. Andrew was a silent member of this con- 



198 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



ference, the first to wliicli he had been elected as a 
dele^^ate. and the only member of the South Carolina 
delegation \dio took active part in the discussions was 
\\^m. Capers. 

The next South Carolina Confei-ence met January 
11, 1S21, in Columbia, S. C. Bishop George was 
again president, though Bishop McKendree was with 
him. 

At this conference Joseph Tai'pley. after a most 
useful careei', located, aud the Athens District had 
a new presiding ehler ; this was Isaac Smith, one of 
the earliest of the Methodist preacliers in South Canj- 
liua. and one whom we have already mentioiied as 
having been present at the first Georgia Conference in 
17SS.^ 

lie was a ^^irginian by birth, the grandson of an 
Episcopal minister. His father, Thomas Smith, was 
a fai'mer in Kent County, Va.. and died while his 
son Avas still small. AVhen the Bev.jlutionary war com- 
men.ced. he entered the army and served with Washiuig- 
ton and La Fayette for three years. He was an ordeily 
sergeant, and \vas so well known by La Fayette, that 
when the Marcpiis was in America, on meeting him at 
his mission, near Columbus, the ardent Frenehmaii 
caught him in his arms, and the ^Id soldier, now a 
missionary, after asking his old cunnnander about his 
j^rospects for Heaven, connnended him to God in 
prayer. He had been well taught the Episco2:>al cate- 
chism, but knew nothing of personal religion until after 
the Revolution was over. He saw it manifest among 
the Baptists of ^S'orfolk. and soon after heard Asbury 
preach. He was converted, and in 17S3 began to 
preach, and in 17S-1 entered the conference at Ellis' 



m GEORGIA A^s'D FLORIDA, 1785-18(35. 



199 



Meeting-lionse, in Yirginia. He travelled in Virginia 
and ]S^ortli Carolina for two years, then came southward 
for twelve years ; he was a most laborious travelling 
preacher. During that time he married Ann Gilman, 
a cousin of James Eembert, and, when his family 
cares forbade his travelling, located and settled in 
Camden, S. C. lie was the father of Methodism in 
the town. His home was the stopping-place of all the 
preachers. He was the trusted friend of Asbury, 
McKendree, George, and Soule. Asbury visited him 
every year from the time of his election as Bishop, till 
his death. He was much loved and honored. In 
his house Bishop Capers made his first public prayer, 
and he and two others entertained the South Caro- 
lina Conference at its first meetino- in Camden. 
After a life as a local preacher of great usefulness, he 
re-entered the conference in 1S20, and remained in it 
till his death in 1835. At the time of his appointment 
to the Athens District, he was about sixty years old. 
He was selected the next year to take charge of the 
mission to the Ci'eek Indians at Fort Mitchell, near the 
present city of Columbus. He won the affections of 
the red men, and labored among them with some suc- 
cess. After several years in the wilds he was super- 
annuated, and spent the remainder of his life in such 
labor as he could do, visiting as far west as the Xatchez 
Country, where his daughter Mary, the wife of Hugh 
Lenoir, was living. He returned to Georgia, and died 
in Monroe County, at the residence of AVhitman C. 
Hill, who had married his daughter Jane. AVhen asked 
on his dying bed how it was with him, he repeated the 
beautiful lines of Wesley, as with his clasped hands he 
looked toward the sky : 



200 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



" There is my house and portion fair, 
My treasure and my heart are there, 
And my Eternal home. 
For me my cider brethren stay, 
And angels beckon me away, 
And Jesus bids me come." 

Few men since the days of the Apostle John have 
been more holj and lovable than this old soldier. Ris- 
ing at fonr in the morning, he spent the time in prayer, 
singing and reading tlie Bible until six o'clock. lie was 
called the St. John of the Carolina Conference. His 
two sons, I:>aac Henry and James Hembert, were local 
preachers of fine ability ; one of tlieni, Dr. James Eem- 
bert Smith, still lives and still works. The other, 
after years of useful labor, died a few years since. 
Several of his grandsons are also travelling preachers. 
He was a man of dignified and gentle bearing; he had a 
good English education, and while a plain preacher, was 
an earnest and acceptable one. The South Carolina Con- 
ference was so much attached to him^, that, when the con- 
ference was divided, although their old father was in 
the Georgia territory, they would not allow him to be 
transferred, but retained his name till the last. 

He was devoted to the religious teaching of the 
negroes and the Indians, and was so esteemed by tbe 
negroes, that, in a time when all the white men were 
doomed by the rebellions blacks to death, the only 
ground upon which they consented to the massacre of 
Father Smith was that it AvouJd be kindness to him to 
send him to heaven. While he was on the Athens Dis- 
trict, he licensed Win. J. Parks to preach. Of him we 
shall have much to say in the futui'e of this history."^ 



* Sprague's Annals, and Stevens' History, 



m geohgia and Florida, 1785-1865. 



201 



Jiio. B. Chappel, jnst udmitted into full connection, 
was this year on the Grove Ch-cuit. He was born in 
Lincohi County, Ga., and was converted when twenty- 
tliree years old. He was first a local preacher, and 
entered the conference in 1819. He was a very accept- 
able and useful preacher, preaching by day when he 
could get a congregation, and by night when they would 
]iot corae out by day. In all his circuits he was blessed 
with gracious success, and revivals followed his ministry. 
He broke down in the work, and settled in Oglethorpe 
County. After returning from a camp-meeting in 
Elbert, he was taken suddenly ill, and died praising 
liis Eedeemer to the last.^ 

During this j^ear Wm. Capers was much in Georgia. 
He had been selected to establish a mission among the 
Creeks, and was to raise funds for the purpose. He 
went twice to the Nation, spending the intervals solicit- 
ing contributions to the society.f How well he suc- 
ceeded is evidenced by the fact that the South Carolina 
Conference paid into the missionary treasury more than 
all the conferences together — all of New Ejigland pay- 
ing but seventy-nine dollars, and South Carolina Con- 
ference alone $1,374. :j: His heart was in the work, and 
the zeal with which he labored was inspiration to all. 

One new circuit was made in the Wire-Grass Country, 
called in the minutes Lapahee. It should be Ala^paha. 
It joined the Little Ocmulgee on the north, and extend- 
ed to the Florida line in the south. J. J. Triggs, an 
Englishman by birth, was placed in charge of it. He 
was possessed of decided ability, and did good work. 



* Obituary notice in Minutes. f Wightman. 

X Methodist Magazine for 1824. 

9^ 



202 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



After travelling a few years, he located^ and resided in 
Burke County till his death. 

James Dun woody was on the Little Ocmulgee Circuit. 
He says that it was a three weeks' circuit for one 
preacher. The population was sparse, the rides were 
long. The people were very poor, living in log huts ; 
and often during cold winter nights, as he slept in these 
cabins, the wind poured in upon his head all night long. 
In windy weather the wind blew down the large stick- 
and-dirt chimneys, and mixed lumps of clay and soot 
with the not enticing food. The country was much 
infested with flies and mosquitoes, but the young itiner- 
ant, sick and weary as he was, did his work until 
conference. This was but a specimen of the work in 
Norton's Disti'ict. This district extended from near 
Milledgevill-e to St. Mary's, and Norton himself broke 
dowm under the labor. 

During the year there was no increase, but a decrease 
of over four hundred members. The conference met in 
Augusta, January, 1822, Bishops McKendree and George 
presiding. A very great change was made in the line of 
the white settlements in Georgia by the acquisition of 
new and valuable territory from the Indians. This 
rendered the extension of the conference boundary 
needful, but this was not done until the next year. 
John Howard, who came to Georgia the year before, 
and who was stationed in Savannah, was in Augusta 
this year. He was from North Carolina, and was born 
in 1792, and at this time was thirty years old. After 
receiving an excellent common school education, he 
entered the store of his brother, ITenry B. Howard, of 



* Dunwoody's Memoir. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



203 



Wiliniiigtoii, xS . C, where he was carefully trained as a 
merchant. The Methodists in AYihnington at that time 
were an humble and despised sect, and although his 
mother had been converted years previously, under the 
ministry of Lelvoy Cole in Yirginia, she had not been 
able to withstand the opposition she had met with, and 
was living out of the church. One day as he, a boy of 
sixteen, was passing by, he saw a group of people gath- 
ered under a tree. He drew^ near, and heard a colored 
man preaching.^ This was probably Henry Evans. He 
w^as convicted under the plain man's preaching, and 
sought and obtained the pardon of his sins. He became 
an active and valuable member of the Churcli, and from 
being a class-leader was licensed to exhort. He was a 
successful merchant. A happy family was growing up 
around him, when an unexpected, and as he regarded 
it, an imperative call of Providence came to him to 
leave all and follow his Master in the work of the 
ministrv. John McYean had been stationed in Georo;e- 
town ; he seems to liave been a good man, but Avould 
now and then be overcome by an old weakness for 
wine. While in Georgetown he fell, and Joseph Travis 
came to John Howard w-ith an earnest request that he 
would take his place. f He did so. The next year he 
entered the conference, and in. it he died. He was, 
when he began to travel, about tv\'enty-live years old. 
He was a man of very handsome person, of rather stout 
frame, florid complexion, clear blue eyes, and raven 
black hair. He was very fluent and earnest, and had a 
fine voice, and was a sweet singer ; an accomplished gen- 
tleman in manner, very earnest and energetic, he at 



* His own memoranda., 



t Travis. 



204 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



once was very successf al and popular. lie rose rapidly 
in the conference, and after having been on one cir- 
cuit, and then in Charleston and Georgetown, he came 
to Georgia. He was eminently useful in Savamiah ; 
afterwards he was in Augusta, where the same success 
attended him. He then returned to South Carolina, 
where, after having been stationed for three years, he 
located, and tauglit school in Charleston. He removed 
to Georgia and re-entered the conference in 1828. In 
1830 he removed to the young city of Macon, in which 
he remained till the time of his death in 1836. He 
was a man of fine business qualification, and was secre- 
taiy of the Georgia Conference when he died. Twice 
he was a delegate to the general conference, and in the 
Cinciimati General Conference, the May before his 
death, made an impressive and effective speech against 
abolitionism. 

Few men ever labored in South Carolina and Georgia 
wdiohave left a better record. His education, if not ad- 
vanced, was excellent as far as it went, and his English 
was pure and elegant. He was fall of zeal and fire — - 
one who knew how to move the hearts of men — a 
master of sacred song, and wherever he went the re- 
vival influence went with him. Savannah, Augusta, 
Greensboro, Washington, Milledgeville, and Macon, 
were specially indebted to him. He had entered the 
conference from the purest motives and at great per- 
sonal cost, as far as this world was concerned. He was 
much esteemed by all, and especially by the people of 
Macon, who erected a monument over his grave. 

On the Sparta Circuit, with Thomas Samford, the 
minutes place Wm. Parks. He was afterwards well 
known under his full name of Wm. J. Parks. He was 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



205 



the SOB of Ileiirj Parks, whom we have seen as one of 
the first converts to Methodism in Georgia. 

He had been reared in the backwoods, and had no 
educational advantages save such as the old field-school 
gave. He gave in his short autobiography an ac- 
count of liis first school. The teacher was an old drunk- 
ard. One day the boys turned him out, and after 
they had beaten and tied him, and smeared him with 
mud, he surrendered, and gave the school a treat, whicli 
was a gallon of loMshey^ wliich he drank with his schol- 
ars. He soon went as far as an old field-school would 
allow, and then went to the new Methodist school at 
Salem, to study grammar. Here he was licensed to 
preach. 

A more nnpolished country lad has rarely appeared 
before a quarterly conference for license to preach. 
His skin was as dark as an Indian's, and his hair as 
straight. His manners were simple and unpretending, 
and when he joined the conference, he had known but 
little of life, save what he had seen in the quiet settle- 
ment in which he had been reared. He was twenty- 
three, and already married. His wife was in every way 
suited to him, and much of his usefulness and success 
was owing to the sterling character and deep piety of 
his good Naomi. He was sent to the Sparta Circuit, a 
long way from his up-country home. Thomas Samford 
Avas his senior preacher. The Sparta Circuit at that 
time included in its boundaries some of the best lands 
in the State, and many of the people in it were rich and 
aristocratic. He says but little of his first year ; but his 
second, when alone among a people who knew him and 
could value him, was a year of triumph. Of his work here 
on the Gwinnett Mission^ our history will tell. He 



206 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



labored on, improving every day, making his power 
nioi*e and more felt. After travelling for three years, 
receiving scarcely any pay, he located, that he might 
better pi'epare himself to work for nothings and then 
returned to the conference. He was made a presiding 
elder, and soon evinced a remarkable fitness for the 
place. He early won his position of leader on the con- 
ference floor, and never lost it as long as he was dis- 
posed to hold it. For two years he was a missionary, 
for fourteen presiding elder ; for four he was stationed ; 
he was a circuit preacher for twelve, and an agent for 
ten/'^ Wm. J. Parks was in every respect a remarkable 
man. He was native! v endowed with a brain of lar^>:e 
size and remarkable balance; he had no crotchets. His 
preaching was always clear as sunshine, and oftentimes 
as cheering. His striking and homely illustrations, his 
strong logic, his excellent diction, his genuine fervor, 
all united to make him a most entertaining and profit- 
able preacher. He called a spade a spade, and, while 
not disposed to controversy, was not afraid of it. His 
courage was of tlie finest tjpe, whether it was to main- 
tain an unpopular side in conference debate, to admin- 
ister rebuke, or to endure hardships, he was brave 
enough for all. In perfect knowledge of Methodist 
law, in skill in debate, he had no superior. H defeated, 
he never lost his good humor, but fell in heartily with 
all the measures that were adopted. He never became 
a querulous old njan — -was bright and cheerful to the 
lasto fie was simple as simplicity, and always plain in 
speech and dress. Despising shams, he never failed to ex- 
pose them ; loving the good and the true, he never failed 



* His own MSS. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-18G5. 207 



to npliold it. He was thrice niamed, and few men have 
been so blessed in married life. He died in great peace, 
in Oxford, Georgia, in December, 1873, a few days be- 
fore the meeting of the Georgia Conference, having just 
entered his seventy-fourth year. 

Isaac Smith having been chosen to snperintend the 
newly established Creek Mission, Samuel K. Hodges 
was appointed to the Athens District. Allen Turner 
was made presiding elder on the Oconee. On the 
Ohoopee Circuit, which included Emanuel, Bullock, and 
Bryan Counties, two young men were placed — Thomas 
L. Wynn and Peyton L. Wade. Thomas L. Wynn was 
the father of Rev. Alexander M. Wjmn, who has been 
so loner a time a useful member of the Geor(>:ia Confer- 
ence, and to him we are indebted for the following 
sketch of his excellent father. Thomas L. Wynn was 
also the brother-in-law of Bishop Andrew, having mar- 
ried a daughter of Alexander McFarlane, of Charleston. 

Thomas L. Wynn w^as the son of Samuel and Eliza- 
beth Wynn. He w^as born in Abbeville District, S. G, 
June 27, 1798. Through the instructions and example 
of his pious parents, he was in early life the subject of 
divine awakenings and convictions, and when thirteen 
years old was most happily converted to God ; but from 
the influence of thoughtless company he afterwards lost 
his flrst love, and was for several years in a lukewarm 
state. It is somewhat remarkable that even prior to his 
early conversion he was impressed vvutli the belief that 
he would become a preacher, which impression doubt- 
less contributed largely in restraining him from all evil 
and immoral practices, especially during the years of 
his lukewarmness and loss of living faith. His child- 
hood and youth w^ere passed without blemish and above 



208 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



reproach. In the autumn of 1815 he was restored fully 
to tlie divine favor and became ever henceforth a seri- 
ous, deterrahied; and most zealous Christian. His im- 
pression that he would be called to the ministry was 
now ripened into a deep) and settled conviction ; but, 
nnder perplexities not unusual to persons in similar 
circumstances, as w^ell as on account of his youtli, he 
for some time took no direct steps in that direction. 

Finally he yielded to his conviction, formed his pur- 
pose, and gave himself to the work of God, and at the 
close of 1817 he was licensed to preach and recom- 
mended as a candidate for admission into the South 
Carolina Conference. 

Up to this period Mr. Wynn had enjoyed good health, 
but during his arduous and zealous labors in Charleston 
his health began seriously to fail, and symptoms of the 
fell disease which finally cut short his useful life ap- 
peared. On the 19th ls"ovember, 1823, he formed a 
most happy union in marriage with Miss Sarah Harriet 
McFarlane, fourth daughter of Alexander and Catharine 
McFarlane, of Chai-leston. His wife was the sister of 
Bishop Andrew's first wife and of Mrs. John Mood, each 
of whose husbands were then in the South Carolina 
Conference, and she was, indeed, in every way well 
qualified for an itinerant preacher's wife — amiable, 
intelligent, pure, pious, devoted to Christ and His cause, 
and also beautiful in person. 

In 1824 he was stationed in the city of Savannah, 
6a., and for 1825 in Wilmington, N, C. During both 
of these years he w^as more or less feeble, and with diffi- 
culty performed all his numerous duties, and at the 
close of 1825 received a superannuated relation for one 
year. Rest from constant labor and preaching, and 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



209 



judicious treatment, soon restored his health, and for 
1827 he was stationed in Georgetown, S. C. This year 
a most violent attack of bilious fever brought him near 
to death. On the 7th of February of this year — 1827 — 
he was deprived by death of the companionship of his 
devoted wife, leavino; him the charp-e of an infant son 
three weeks old, whom God spared, and he has now 
been twenty-five years a member of the Georgia Con- 
ference. 

For 1828 he was staticmed in Camclen, where his 
health improved ; for 1829 he was appointed to the 
united towns of Washington and Lexington, in Geoi'gia, 
where his health seemed fully restored. In 1830 he 
w^as again stationed in Charleston, S. C, but here liis 
onerous duties soon told fatally on him, for in the spring 
he was attacked with hemorrhage of tlie lungs, attended 
Avith other alarming sjunptoms, and after suffering much, 
witliout pi'ospect of speedy recovery, Ijy advice he left 
for the up-country. Reaching Camden, he was pros- 
trated with another violent bilious fever, which pre- 
Yented his going farther. This was succeeded by a most 
rapid consumption, of wdiich he died on the 9th of 
October, 1830. 

The exercises of his mind and the manifestations of 
the grace of God which he experienced during his last 
illness were peculiarly edifying. His pious widow (for 
early in 1829 he was married again, most happily, to 
Miss Sarah J. Cook, of Camden) says: ''His illness 
seemed to have troubled his spirits ; and sometimes he 
Vv^as bowed dowm under manifold temptations. But 
again, God would dispel the cloud, and give him to 
rejoice. About ten days before his departure he was 
particularly blessed. ' Death,' said he, ' has lost his 



210 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



sting. Feeble nature has sometimes feared to meet the 
cneni)^, but it is all with God.' At another time he 
exchiimed, ^Heaven, what a deliglitful place! Ilow can 
you wish to be detained from it ? ' About seven o'clock, 
the evening before lie died, he requested me to bring 
liis two dear little children to him, and as he embraced 
them he said, ' They will soon be fatherless ; ' then, with 
his eyes swimming w4th tears, and looking np to Heaven, 
he continued, ' Fathei* of the fatherless, take care of my 
children ! ' Then giving them back to me, he said, ' I 
have given both them and you to God, and now I have 
nothing more to do but to wait the will of my Lord.' Dur- 
ing the night his kind physician said to liim, 'Mr. Wynn, 
I think your end is drawing near.' Fie gave him in reply 
an affectionate look, embraced him, and thanked him 
with great tenderness for all his attentions to him. iVfter 
this he exclaimed, ' Glory to God ! Glory ! Hallelujah ! ' 
repeating the expression several times. He seemed to be 
slumbering most of the night, saying many things indis- 
tinctly, about ' angels,' ' the blessed,' etc. At one time 
I aroused him, saying 'I was afraid he did not lie easy.' 
He smilingly replied, ' I sleep so sweetly in Jesus? Thus 
he seemed to slumber until half -past six in the morning, 
when he opened his eyes and looked affectionately on 
all around him, and then closed them until the resurrec- 
tion morning.' 

In his Conference Memoir, published in the Minutes 
of 1881, it is said of him as follows: ''Brother Wynn 
possessed extraordinary abilities as a preacher. From 
childhood he was studious and thoughtful ; and, although 
his opportunities for acquiring knowledge in early life 
were, perhaps, rather limited than liberal, his after-hab- 
its were such as to render him respectable both for his 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



211 



literary and theological attainments. In this respect he 
was a line example of what a Methodist preacher can do 
to improve his mind, if he vnll he studious — thongh it 
must be acknowldeged that Brother AYynn possessed a 
capacity for improvement far above what is common, 
even among preachers. His perception was quick, his 
understanding strong, and his judgment well balanced. 
He loved to reason on a right subject, and he reasoned 
well. This gave a distinguishing character to his pulpit 
labors. They were sure to exhibit an able argument, as 
well as a warm application. As a preacher, altogether, 
he richly merited the high estimation in which he was 
held ; and what he was, by the grace of God. as a man 
and a Christian, let his death-bed speak. By his death 
the church has lost a son and a servant, much lamented 
and long to be remembered." 

Peyton L. Wade was the colleague of Thomas L. 
Wynn. He travelled only a few years, and then married 
a very wealthy and a very excellent widow lady, and 
located. He was a line business man, and his wealth 
greatly increased, so that at the time of his death, wliich 
did not take place for over forty years from this time, 
he was the wealthiest Methodist preacher in Georgia. 
He was a warm-hearted man to the last, and many a 
travelling preacher found in him a sympathizing 
friend. 

Elijah Sinclair appears as on the Appling Circuit, 
which was, perhaps, the poorest and hardest circuit in 
the Sta-te. Sinclair, after years of great usefulness, 
became involved in speculation, met with disasters, and 
was expelled from the Church. Save that it is due to 
his memory to say that the charge w^as merely one of 
this character, we should have passed over this sad 



212 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



record in silence. He afterwards retnrned to the 
Church, was licensed again to preach, and died in 
peace. If onr history has taught any lesson, it has 
taught to men in the niiuistry the great dauger of devia- 
ting from the line of duty to engage in secular business, 
especially commercial life. Beverly Allen, Joseph 
Tarpley, Jno. Andrew^, James Uussell, Elijah Sinclair, 
Raleigh Green, all suffered much, and some fatally from 
this cause. There seems, too, to be a real fatality about 
trade to a preacher. Many have entered into it, and 
few of them have escaped baidvruptcy and life-long 
distress. 

On the Oconee District this year, under the efficient 
eldership of Allen Turner, there was considerable prc)s- 
perity. On the sand-hills in EnrcUiuel, in Washington, 
at the camp-meeting in Twiggs, there were revivals. 
In Liberty County and in Wayne over 100 joined the 
Church. Thomas L. Wynn, says the presiding elder, 
kept unceasingly at work, hardly taking time to eat. 
The most distant circuit in the South was Saltilla and 
Amelia Island, and this was the date of the establish- 
ment of the Church at Fernandina. There was a small 
increase during the year. The total number of mem- 
bers reported at Savannah in 1823 was about 7,400 
white members. 

At this conference, 1822, Elijah Sinclair, as we have 
seen, was appointed to St. Mary^s and Amelia Island, 
Amelia Island was the northernmost limit of the pi'ovince 
of Florida. On the northern end of the island, within 
a few miles of Cumberland Island, in Georgia, and 
twelve miles from St. Mary's, was the town of Fernan- 
dina. The island was not thickly inhabited, but it had 
some commercial importance as the port of East Florida. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



213 



During the war of 1812, it had been a depot for contra- 
band traders, and after the slave trade was abolished in 
tlie United States, cargoes of shives w^ere brought to 
this port, and many of them smuggled into Georgia. 
A few persons of English and Scotch descent had settled 
on the island, and some of them were engaged in plant- 
ing on a considerable scale. They were Protestants. 
Among them was Donald McDonnell, a Scotch High- 
lander, who had married first an English lady on the 
island, and then a lady of Savannah, of French and 
Huguenot lineage. A Mr. Seaton, of New York, had 
settled on the island as early as 1812, and thus Sinclair 
found a few sympathizers, as he, the first Protestant 
preacher who had entered Florida, came in 1822. 
Donald McDonnell w^as the early friend of the mis- 
sionaries, and at his house for many years there was a 
preaching-place. His son, the father of Rev. Geo. 
G. x^. McDonnell, of the South Georgia Conference, 
was converted some few years after this on the main- 
land, under the ministiy of Rev. John L. Jerry, and 
afterwards with his father and mother joined the 
Methodists, as there w^as no Presbyterian church in the 
section. 

We may safely say that the first Protestant preaching 
in Florida was on Amelia Island, and was either done 
by Elijah Sinclair, or his predecessors on the St. Mary's 
Circuit. 

Fernandina is now a promising and attractive little 
city, about a mile from the old Spanish town of that 
name, and the Protestant bodies are well represented 
in it. 

The Ogeechee District was partly in South Carolina, 
and our old friend Joseph Travis was upon it. Washing- 



214 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



Um Town, although it had but fourteen members, was 
now considered strong enough for a station, and Thomas 
Darley was sent to it. For nearly thirty five years the 
Methodist preachers had been preaching regularly at 
Coke's Chapel, three miles from the village, and in the 
academy, and as the fruit of the toil there were fourteen 
members and no clmrch building. 

The members of the Church in the State, as the con- 
ference minntes report them, were fewer by 500 than 
they had been ten years before. Why was this ? It 
was not emigr?,.tion ; the new lands of Georgia were not 
yet open, and few had gone to Alabama or Mississippi. 
It was not because the fields had been abandoned, for 
the preachers had supplied the circuits despite the hard- 
ships of the work. 

We can only conjectui-e the true answer to this ques- 
tion. 

Several causes seem to have united to produce this 
effect. It was a time of great temporal prosperity. For- 
tunes were being rapidly made, and the love of money 
was eati]]g up the Church. The invention of the cotton- 
gin in 1800, the closing of the slave trade in 1808, and 
the increased effort before that time to crowd the poor 
heathens into the market ; the new and very fertile 
lands purchased in 1801, which were now producing 
cotton most lai'gely ; the invention of the steamboat, 
and the cheaper transportation of cotton from Augusta, 
which made that city the great cotton depot of Georgia, 
had all rendered the rapid securement of fortunes by 
farming not only a possibility, but almost a certainty. 
The church-member grew rich, and had nowhere to be- 
stow his goods. His habits of economy and industry 
continued, he had no calls upon his benevolence, and as 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



215 



extravagance was not the fashion, he spent little, gave 
nothing away. 

The circuits w^ere very large. What was originally 
the result of the scarcity of men and the sparse popula- 
tion of the country, was now" persisted in for the sake 
of econouiy. The circuit preacher only came every 
twenty-eight days, and then remained only part of one 
day. The support accorded to the preachers wasentire- 
\j insufficient ; the people had been poor, and they 
could not believe they were not j)oor now. In the first 
days the preachers had only hoped to get a scant sum, 
enough it might be to clothe them, and now the wealthy 
inember was unw^illing to pay more. Thus the able and 
experienced men were driven out of the field by their 
inability to stay in it. 

Pierce, Tarpley, Capel, Jenkins, had followed Hull ; 
Humphries and Ivy to the local sphere where they were 
needed most, in the itinerancy, and when they were in 
the ripeness of their power. Even those who remained 
w^ere forced to have farms of their own, oftentimes very 
remote from their circuits. There was yet but two par- 
sonages in the State, one in Angusta and one in Savan- 
nah, and in these places the Church advanced. The 
ministry w^ere not equal in culture to the demand, for, 
although the masses were not equal to the ministers, 
there were a large number of cultivated people in the 
State, who w^ere far ahead of most of the preachers ; as 
yet there was not a single classical scholar, except Jos. 
Travis, among the preachers in Georgia. Then too 
there was great disaffection among some of the local 
preachers of prominence. The excitement which, a 
year or two later, culminated in the formation of the 
Methodist Protestant Church, was now arising. 



216 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



Eveiytbiiig moved on in the same old way. New 
churches were not built, only one new school had been 
established; no superannuated preachers were sup- 
ported. The circuits were of the same size^ and the 
preachers pursued the same methods, of which we have 
spoken in our account of the Church in 1812. There 
Avas, as yet, no Sunday-schools of wdiich we can find 
any account, save a few in the larger cities — one in 
Savannah and probably one in Augusta. Milledgeville 
having ceased to be a station, the first Sunday-school 
established there had no doubt died of neglect. The 
Chnrch was torpid, but not dead. The camp-meetings 
and the quarterly meetings were still great occasions, 
and all Georgia was on the eve of the greatest revival 
it had ever known, and the Church was about to take 
an advanced position from which she has never been 
driven. This it will be the duty of the next chapter 
to tell. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



217 



CHAPTER VIII. 

From 1823 to the Formation of the Georgia Confer- 
ence IN 1830. 

Conference of 1823— Wm. Capers at Milledgeville— Monroe Mrs- 
siON — Geo. Hull — Yellow River Mission — Gwinnett Mission — 
Chattahoochee Mission— John Slade — Introduction of Metho- 
dism into Florida — Conference of 1834— Tallahassee — Tilman 
Snead — General Conference of 1824 — Jos. Travis — Conference 
of 1825— J. A. Few— Conference' of 1827— Nicholas T alley — 
Joshua Soule — Jesse Boring — Great Revival — A. B. Long- 
street — Conference of 1828 — James Dannellt — Eatonton — 
JosiAH Flournoy — Henry Branham — Jere. Norman — Stephen 
Olin — Charles Hardy — La Grange — Robert Flournoy — Con- 
ference OF 1829 — Madison— James Hunter— General Review. 

Although the State of Georgia, after the sale to the 
United States of all the territory which is now com- 
prised in the States of Alabama and Mississippi, nomi- 
iially included in her boundary all that now belongs 
to her, yet the Indian title to a large part of it was 
not extinguished. All the country west of the Ocmul- 
gee and north of the Chattahoochee was held by the 
Creeks and Cherokees. Tlie country on the east side 
of the river was, for that time, thickly settled ; on 
the west, where there were thousands of acres of fertile 
land, the wild Indian had his hunting-grounds. A 
treaty was made by the United States with the Indians 
in 1818 and in 1819, and a part of this country was 
opened to the white settlers. This section, which was 
surveyed and laid out into lots of 202^ acres, in 1821, 
10 



218 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



extejided to the Flint Eiver. In 18:25 the rennahicler 
of the Creek hand was purchased, and in 1838 tlie 
Clierokees were removed to the far West. The new 
lands were rapidly settkxh 

At the conference which met in Savannah, Febru- 
ary 20, 1823, Bishop Eoberts presiding^ important 
adivances were made in the Geoi'gia work. Several 
new missions were established in the conference. This 
was the beginning of that wonderful work since done 
in the domestic field by the ]\Iissionary Board. The 
Missionary Society of the M. E. Church had been in 
existence but a short time, when this first appropria- 
tion was made to Georo-ia. 

The coi'ps of preacher's in Georgia was a strong one. 

Milledgeville was again made a station, and Wm. 
Capers, in order that he might be near to the Creek 
Mission, was placed in the charge of it. Capers was 
now in the prime of his numhiKxh and his fame as a 
preacher and as a Christian gentleman was as wide as 
American Methodism, lie did ]U)t c^'ufinie himself 
to Milledgeville, but travelled much in the interests of 
the mission, and made his power felt throughout the 
State. Milledgeville, after havin^ghad separate existeiu-e 
as a station, had, since 1811:, been an appointment in 
the Cedar Creek Circuit, and, of course, was worse off 
at tlie end of ten years in the circuit than it was when it 
was united with it. The establishment of a station, and 
the appointment of Dr. Capers to it, ^vas a revival of its 
spirit. There was no parsonage, and dnring the first 
part of the year he left liis family in South Carolina. 
Mrs. Clark, the Governor's wife, was a Methodist, and 
when the executive mansion was vacated for the sum- 
mer she requested her pastor to occupy it with his 



m GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



219 



family. The next year a parsonage was secured, the 
third in the State."^ 

Dr. Capers came to the capital at a time when it was 
the centre of the most intense political excitement, 
and when the hope of doing anything for the Church 
was almost a vain one. The political excitement in the 
times of Troup and Clark was exceedingly bitter ; and 
inasmuch as men, not principles, were the objects of 
contest, a bitter personality entered into all the politi- 
cal controversies. Preachers as well as people were 
decided in sentiment, and they w^ere popular or other- 
wise, according to their political complexion. Mercer, 
Danl. Duffy, Hodges, and many others were not only 
Troup men, but were openly avowed participants in the 
contest. Fortunately for Dr. Capers, he was from South 
Carolina, and alike the friend of Gov^ Clark and 
of Gov. Troup, his successor; but still this intense 
state of feeling was unfavorable to his work. So, while 
he did wonderful preaching and much of it, preaching 
at the penitentiary at sunrise, at the church at eleven 
o'clock, at three p.m., and at night, there was no con- 
siderable addition to the membership during the year.f 

Wm. Arnold returned now to the work, and was sent 
on the Cedar Creek Circuit. Arnold was one of the 
holiest and most lovable of men. He had no doubt 
greatly improved as a preacher since we last saw him, 
and was exceedingly popular and useful. Thomas 
Samford w^as on the Sparta Circuit, and Jno. B. Chap- 
pellon the Alcovi. AVilley Warwick, who had travelled 
as early as 1804 in the bounds of the States of North 
and South Carolina, having now removed to Georgia, 



* Life of Capers. 



f Caper's Life and Minutes. 



220 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



re-entered the active work, and was sent on the Grove 
Circuit. George Hill took the Monroe Mission, Andrew 
Ilammill the Yellow Eiver, and Wm. J. Parks the 
Gwinnett. 

The Athens District had not often before or since 
been snpplied with stronger men. 

Lovick Pierce, after a location since 1814, now re- 
turned where his heart had always been, to the travel- 
ling connection. His family were located in Greens- 
boro, where he liad resided from the time of his loca- 
tion. He had not been idle, but had been hard at work 
preaching and cultivating tlie powers of his wonderful 
mind. He was now able to return to the work, and 
leaving his family for four-fifths of the time, he served 
ao-ain his old flock in Auo;asta. James O. Andrew was 
sent to Savannah. H matters had r.ot improved in 
Georgia after this, it was not because she was unsupplied 
w^ith able preachers. 

As we have seen, the new purchase was now mapped 
out. Already had the local preachers been at work 
forming societies and waiting for the conference ap- 
pointed to come. The counties had not been settled a 
twelvemonth before the missionary was in them. 
George Hill was on the Monroe Mission. His mission 
included Monroe, apart of Bibb, Upson, Crawford, Pike 
and Butts counties. Although he came in 1823, and the 
appointment first appears, he was not the first travelling 
preacher in Monroe. x\ndrew Hammill had been befoj'e 
him. He had been appointed to assist Isaac Smith in es- 
tal)lishing the Creek Mission ; but for some cause, after 
going out to it, he had been released and returned to 
Geoi-gia, and in the latter part of the year he had gone 
into Monroe to establish the Church there. John Wim- 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 17S5-1SG5. 



221 



bish, a local preacher, afterwards in the conference, had 
been preaching in the comity, and had organized some 
chnrches. Hannnill established several, and had a clnn-ch 
bnilt near the present Mt. Zion. This chnrch was tlie first 
in all probability in all tlie country now included in the 
territory of the mission. It was built the last of 1S22.^ 
The section to which Hill was sent, the then comity 
of Monroe, which included the territoiw of a half-d(^zen 
counties now, was one of the first in the new purchase. 
It is still a good connty, with a delightful climate and 
excellent people, but the lands are no longer what they 
once were. The Creek Indians, who lived on the west 
side of the river, kept the woods burned that they 
might have free access to the deer, and that the grass 
niio'ht p'ive to the herds o-ood ^-razino;, so that the 
beautiful hills richly clad with line timber were all 
grass covered. The purest and clearest brooks rippled 
over their pebbly beds, and when the forest was felled 
production was abundant. A conntry so enticing, bor- 
dering npon the white settlements, and given away by 
the State, could not long wait for popnlation, and veiy 
soon after it was granted it was thickly settled. Many 
Methodists came from the older States, and when George 
Hill came, he found a church already organized. He 
was most admii-ably suited to his work. Energetic, 
pious and eloquent, great success attended him. He 
came one winter day across the Ocnnilgee to the home 
of Enoch Hanson, long a good man and a devoted 
Methodist, in whose house there was a chnrch, now 
known as Ebenezer. The appointment had been sent 
by the missionary, and not received, and Hill found 



* Recolleotions of J. B. Hanson and other old members. 



222 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



only some little boys at the home. One of these was 
the at present Rev. J. B. Hanson ; with them he spent 
liis first Sunday on his mission. His circuit began at 
Ebenezer, he went thence to Salem, thence to Damas- 
cus in Bibb, through the thinly settled pine woods of 
Bibb to Rogers, Culloden, and into Upson, and back 
through Butts to the point from which he started, having 
twenty-four appointments, which he filled in one month. 
There are now ten itinerant Methodist preachers in the 
territory over wliich he travelled. The first preaching 
in Upson Avas at the house of a Mr. Maybre3\ The 
first in Pike, at a little log-church near Josiah Holmes', 
a few miles from Barnesville. There were already, as 
early as 1823, several local preachers of ability in the 
circuit. Among them was Moses Matthews, who had 
been a travelling preacher as early as 1S05, Thomas 
Battle, an energetic, sprightly little man from Warren 
Co., Osborn Rogers, and many valuable laymen from 
the eastern counties. Oren Woodward, Dr. Thomas 
Thweatt, Major Tarpley, Holt, and Dr. James Myrick, 
were leading officials in that early day. Dr. Myrick 
was one of the most saintly men of his time. He was 
was for fifty years class leader at Damascus. He lived 
no day without an evidence of his acceptance with God. 
The little closet in which he nsed to pray with his oj^en 
Bible before him, bore npon the floor where he had 
knelt three times a day for fifty years, the evidence of 
how long and how frequent had been his prayers. His 
house was the preacher's home, and his stirring, noisy, 
merry wife — Aunt Nancy, as she was called — was the 
fast friend of ever}^ travelling preacher. His brother- 
in-law, Col. Wm. C. Redding, was to the church at 
Salem what Dr. Myrick was to that of Damascus ; he 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-18(35. 



223 



was long tlie recording steward of the large circuit, and 
was one of the most valuable laymen of his day. Witli 
such material at his hands, and such a workman as 
Hill, the success attending him was not to be wondered 
at. Monroe remained a mission only one year, and in 
a few years the Monroe Circuit was one of the best in 
Georgia, a place it has continued to hold to the present 
time. 

The Yellow River Mission joined the Monroe Mission 
on the north. It was so named from one of the branches 
of the Ocmulgee, which rises in Gwinnett County, and 
flows southward. The Mission included the present coun- 
ties of ISTewton, Walton, Henry, Fayette, and Clayton. 
No part of the country was remarkably fertile, but all 
was sufficiently so to attract many settlers. Wealthy 
cotton-planters sought the richer lands of the West, but 
plain, provision-raising Methodists sought these cheaper 
lands, nearer their old homes. ITammill had grand 
success in this field, and gathered up a church of 350 
members. 

The Gwinnett Mission, which Wm. J. Parks travelled, 
was in a rougher country. There were hills and moun- 
tains, the lands were not so good, and there was but lit- 
tle inducement to men of wealth to move where cotton 
was not produced. The countrj^ was, however, soon 
settled, for lands were ver}^ cheap, a lot of land being 
often bought for a pony. It was now being settled rap- 
idly, but not thickly. " Often," says the missionary, " I 
travelled for miles without even a settler's blaze to direct 
me." The county town of Gwinnett was Lawrenceville. 
One Sunda}^ morning, early in 1823, the people of the 
new village were assembled for woi'ship in the log court- 
house, when the new preacher came in. He was dressed 



224 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



in the humblest garb of the coniitiy. His coat was of 
plain coiintiy jeans, cut in the old Methodist stjle, and 
fitted him badly. A copperas-dyed linsey vest, coarse 
pantaloons too short for him, bine yarn socks, and heavy 
brogan shoes, completed the dress of a dark-skinned, 
stern-looking young man, of whom the people had never 
heard. A broad smile passed over the face of a congre- 
gation themselves not most fashionably arrayed ; l)ut 
before the sermon w^as throuMi it chano-ed iuto a smile 
of satisfaction that he had come ; for, to use the language 
of the section, tliey found they had a singed cat^'^ who 
was far better tlian he looked."^ Wm. J. Parks was 
among a simple-hearted, plain people, eager for the 
Gospel, and his heart was full of zeal. They came in 
great numbers to hear him, and the results of the year 
were so encouraging that the young preacher was re- 
turned, and the end of 1824 he reported 561 white 
members and 31 colored. New log-churches sprang up 
all over the county, and many valuable people were 
gathered into the Church. The father of Jesse and Isaac 
Boring had moved to these wilds, and these two young 
men received their first instruction in the art of preach- 
ing from Wm. J. Parks. 

The work in the new purchase presented tliose difii- 
cnlties common to recent settlements — the humblest 
cabins for shelter, the plainest people for hearers, and 
the hardest fare — but there was compensation in the suc- 
cess which attended his labors, and the eagerness of the 
people for the Gospel, for they often walked eight 
miles to hear preaching. The list of appointments 
called for thirty sermons in thirty days. It was no 



* Reconections of the Mother of Col. G. N. Lester. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1T85-1865. 



225 



wonder with siicli practice as tliis Parks became so 
useful a preacher.^ 

The Appling Circuit in the low country was this year 
made a mission, and Adam Wyreck was sent to it, and a 
mission in the south-west of the new purcliase was organ- 
ized, to which two preachers were seiit, John J. Triggs 
and John Slade. To reach tliis appointment they had 
to ride through the Indian nation for a long distance, 
and had to ride in all four hundred miles from the con- 
ference. 

Triggs had gone out from the last conference, to 
organize the mission, and now an assistant was sent to 
him, John Slade, who was recognized as the father of 
Florida Methodism, though he was not the first to preach 
the Gospel in the new territory. 

He was born in South Carolina, and was now thirty- 
three years old. He had travelled one year as a supply 
before 1823, but now for the first time entered the 
travelling connection, and was appointed to the Chatta- 
hoochee Mission. After travelling about seven years he 
located, and gave useful labor as a local preacher, to 
the building up of the Church in Florida. He re-en- 
tered the Florida Conference in 1845, and travelled in it 
till In's death in 1854. He was a fine specimen of a 
]nan. He was tall, well proportioned, with a fine face. 
He sang \^'ell and preached with power.f The country 
in which Triggs and Slade preached vras in the C(jrner 
of three States, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. Their 
circuit was an immense one. The people were perhaps 
the rudest in the States, and though now and then, on 
the better lands, they found some thrifty settlers, gene- 



* RecoUections of Wm. J. Parks. 

10* 



f Sprague. 



226 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



rally they were the poorest and most ignorant class of 
stock-raisers. 

While Triggs and Slade carried the Gospel to these 
pioneers on the West, J. N. Glenn was sent to the oldest 
city of America, San Augustine, in Florida. He w^as the 
first missionary to East Florida, though Elijah Sinclair 
had preached on Amelia Island, two years before him. 
Florida, while a Spanish province, had excluded the 
Protestant missionaries, but now it was open to them. 
Young Glenn found only one member of the Church in 
the old city, but during the year succeeded in raising a 
society of ten members. Allen Turner was the Presid- 
ing Elder of the Oconee District, and his district extend- 
ed into Florida. He held a quarterly meeting, the first 
ever held in Florida, at St. Augustine, and forty-two 
persons knelt at the communion. A church in St. Au- 
gustine was finally built, and the mission for some years 
had a feeble existence, but after the growth of Jackson- 
ville, and the opening of the interior towns, it was aban- 
doned. 

From so efficient a band of workers we might natural- 
ly expect rapid increase, and we are not disappointed. 
During the year there was an addition of nearly two 
thousand members in the bounds of the Georgia work, 
the total number footing up 10,013 wdiite, and 2,700 
colored. 

The next conference met in Charleston, February 
19, 1824. Bishop George presided. The salaries of 
preachers were very deficient, and the funds of the con- 
ference were not sufficient to pay them forty per cent, 
of their claims. When it is remembered that this deficit 
in the funds was simply in the matter of quarterage, 
not including table expenses, and that this quarterage, 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



227 



when all was paid, was but one hundred dollars per an- 
num, the amount of privation which the preachers knew 
may be conjectured. At the close of the session, the 
Bishop held up a purse of silver money w^ith eleven dol- 
lars in it, and said he " had that morning met a black 
woman in the street, who gave him that and said, ' Give 
that to Jesus,' and asked the conference what he should 
do with it. One brother said, ' Give it to the most 
needy,' but no preacher was willing to tell how poor he 
was. One said, ' Here is a young brother who is not able 
to pay for stabling his horse,' so he gave him some of 
it, and finding out some others very needy he divided it 
among them.''"^ 

At this conference an advanced movement was made 
into the new territory of Florida, now being rapidly 
peopled, and a district was made. Josiah Evans w^as 
placed in charge of it. It was called the Tallahassee 
District, and Evans was not only presiding elder, but in 
charge of the Tallahassee mission also. 

Florida, which had been but recently opened to the 
Protestant missionary and to the American settler, pre- 
sents features more unique than any of the Southern 
States. Florida west of the Chattahoochee is almost a 
continuous belt of pine woods, now and then broken 
into by rich hammocks and low swamps. Middle 
Florida, from the Georgia line to the gulf, and to the 
Withlacoochee River, is one of the most fertile, and 
especially one of the best cotton-producing sections in 
the South ; while East Florida presents almost every 
diversity of feature of which a semi-tropical conntry 
is capable. The St. John's, rising in the everglades^ 



* Dunwoody. 



228 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



made its way northward to the sea ; there were rivers 
and lakes, there were wild prairies, and orange groves, 
and live oak forests, all as vet untenanted save by the 
Seminole and by herds of deer and cattle. The Indi- 
ans had, in a great measure, vacated middle Florida, 
and there was now a number of good settlers pouring 
into that part of the State. There were some men of 
w^ealth and intelligence. Tallahassee, the seat of govern- 
ment, was already the centre of considerable refinement ; 
but while there was refinement, tliere was wild dissipa- 
tion, and the gambler and duellist were there beside 
the adventurous planter and the young merchant. 

The settlers were scarcely in the hammocks, and 
Tallahassee had but recently been laid out, before the 
missionary came. Josiali Evans, who was on the Talla- 
hassee mission, was not a gifted, nor was he a polished 
man. He was rouo;h and almost unfeelino; at times, 
but he was a brave man, who was used to work, and 
willing to do it. Morgan Turrentine and Jno. L. Jerry 
were with him in this work. Such success attended 
them that at the next conference 571 white and 107 
blacks were reported as being in the Church in the dis- 
trict. Wm. Arnold was ao^ain on the Cedar Creek Cir 
cuit, James Bellah on the Alcovi, Thomas Samford 
on the Apalachee, and Wiley Warwick on the Grove, 
and Whitman C. Hill on the Walton. The work was 
never better inanned before or since. 

The towns, since Methodism had begun its work in 
the State, had been sadly neglected. Dr. Lovick Pierce, 
always progressive, had seen the evil resulting from the 
kind of service which the circuit preacher rendered, 
had earnestly advocated more attention to tliese impor- 
tant county centres. A change was now inaugurated, 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



229 



and Athens and Greensboro were united, and Lovick 
Pierce was sent to them. Warren ton and Louisville 
were united, and Thomas Darley was sent in charge. 
Tilman Snead was on the Warren Circuit this year. 
He died during the year 1875, when he was nearly 
ninet}^ years old. 

He was born in Wilkes County, May 11, 1786, but 
his family moved to South Carolina in less than two 
years ; in 1799 they removed to Augusta, and for eight 
years he remained behind a counter. When he was 
eighteen years old he removed to St. Simons Island and 
remained there for four years. There were but few 
Methodists in South Carolina when he had resided 
there, and it was in Augusta that his mother, in a pri- 
vate house, joined the Church. On his return from St. 
Simons, a few miles from his home, in a meeting-house 
of the Bush River Circuit, young Snead was converted, 
and under James Russell he joined the Church ; he was 
soon licensed to exhort and to preach. He travelled con- 
secutivel}' for fifteen yeai's, and then located ; in his old 
age he became dissatisfied with the Church of his eai'ly 
love, and withdrew and formed the Southern Independ- 
ent Church, and after its failure remained out of any 
communion, although living a holy life and in good ac- 
cord with his old brethren till his death. 

At this session of the conference delegates were 
elected to the general conference, which was to meet in 
Baltimore in May. The delegates from the South 
Carolina Conference were Lewis Myers, Nicolas Talley, 
Samuel K. Hodges, James Norton, William Capers, 



* Letter from him written March 8, 1875, when he was 89 years 
old. 



230 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



James O. Andrew, Samuel Diinwoody. Wm. M. Ken- 
nedy, Lovick Pierce, Jos. Travis. 

The excitement of four years before on the suspended 
resohitions, with reference to the election of presiding 
elders, had not subsided. Bishop McKendree felt im- 
pelled to defend his course. This he did before the 
conference, and in liis course he was sustained. In the 
interval of tlie conference, that which was then known 
as the Radical Controversy had been growing in heat, 
and the Matual Rights newspaper was in existence 
in Baltimore. This controversy had already brought 
some of the ablest and best men of the Church into 
collision. McCaine, Snethen, Shinn, and Jennings were 
on one side, wliile Boszell, Soule, Capers, Myers, and 
Williams, of the travelling ministry, were on the other ; 
but Dr. Thomas E. Bond, a local preacher and pli3^si- 
cian in Baltimore, the brother of John Weslej^ Bond 
and father of the late Dr. Thomas E. Bond, had made 
his appearance as a defender of Episcopal Methodism, 
and had made his power felt as no other man had. 
The questions at issue had been brought into the elec- 
tion for delegates, and the conferences had shown their 
opinion on them by their choice of delegates. The veto 
power of the Bishops and the election of two more were 
the points of contest. The conservatives were in the 
majority and carried their measures. 

Lewis Myers, who had always been bitterly opposed 
to the early marriage of preachers, seconded by Samuel 
Dun woody, had a i-esolution referred to the Committee on 
Itinerancy, which provided that no preacher who mar- 
ried before he had travelled four years should receive 
quarterage or an allowance for familj^ expenses. The 
general conference was too merciful to pass such a reso- 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1805. 



231 



lutioii. After a close ballot, Joslma Soule and Elijah 
lleddiiig were elected Bishops, each receiving just 
enough votes to elect him. They were both Is ew Eng- 
land ers, and possessed many features of character in 
common. The suspended resolutions were again laid 
over for four years, and tlie conference, after the 
transaction of the usual business, adjourned. 

Josepli Travis was now for his fourth year on the 
Ogeechee District. Travis made his home in Washing- 
ton, and relates an incident in his life on the district 
which resulted very happily for the Church. 

We have spoken in a previous chapter of a visit 
Bishop Asbury had made to the home of Capt. Few, of 
Columbia County., to see his son, who was serious. The 
boy g]'ew np to manhood, was educated at Princeton, 
and became an infidel. Tie was proud of his philo- 
sophical skepticism, and did not hesitate to avow and to 
defend it. He was now living in Augusta, and prac- 
tising law. He sent for Travis to come and spend a 
few days with him. While there, Col. Few told him of 
his nai'row escape from death irom hemorrhage. At 
family prayer he stood up, while the remainder of tlie 
family knelt. After the ladies retired, he introduced 
his favorite subject. The disputants were both able 
men, and the discussion continued to a late hour. 
" Then," says Travis, " I determined to try the a?yu- 
mentum ad Jiominem on him, and asked him if he felt 
no fear of death when he thought he was about to die ; 
to which he replied that for a few moments he felt 
somewhat cnrious, but that, as soon as he could rally his 
natural powers, all was calm." 

Travis then retired. In a few moments a servant 
came for him from Col. Few. He hastened to him, 



232 



fflSTORY OF METHODISM 



and found him bleeding from the lungs. Taking him 
by the hand, the colonel said : " I told yon but a few 
minutes ago I was not afraid to die ; but, oh, sir, it is 
not so." He recovered from this attack, and Travis 
induced him to read Fletclier^s Appeal, He became 
converted to the truth, and afterward a sincere Chris- 
tian and an active preacher, whom we shall often see."^ 

It was while Travis was on tliis district that he reluc- 
tantly gave license to preach to a young Yermonter, 
who was teaching an academy in Abbeville District, 
S. C. This young man was Stephen Olin. j* 

Andrew Ham mill was made Presiding Elder on the 
Oconee District, and Saml. K. Hodges on the Athens. 

The conference for 1825 met in Wilmington, N. C, 
Jan. 20th, Bishop Roberts presiding. 

The Ogeechee District which Travis had travelled 
was now abolished, and the Savannah and Augusta 
Districts were formed. Wm. Arnold continued on the 
Athens District, and the Oconee District ceased to be 
while the Milledgeville District was organized. Up to 
this time, since the State was divided into districts, the 
old Ogeechee and Oconee Districts, named after the 
rivers, had held their places, and the circuits were 
named, like them, after rivers and creeks, but there was 
now a new method of naming them — the districts were 
called after the principal towns in them, and the cir- 
cuits bore the names of the county towns, or the coun- 
ties in which they were. 

Andrew Hammill's hard work had been too much 
for his strength, and he retired on the superannua- 
ted list. 



* Travis' Autobiography. 



m GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-18(35. 



233 



JSTicholas Tallev came ao;ain to Georo:ia as Presidino- 
Elder on the Augusta District. Win. Crooks, a young 
rnan who afterward for mauy years did fine service in 
South Cai'ob'ua, cauie as junior preacher on the Apahi- 
chee Circuit with James Belhrfi. 

Isaac Boring was witli Wm. J. Parks on Broad Piver 
Circuit. He was the son of excellent Methodist 
parents. They had removed from Jackson county to 
Grwinnett, while the country was new. The educational 
advantao^es of vouno; Borinfr wei'e sur'h as could be 
secured in the frontier counties. Before he was 
twenty, he began to preach, and continued his work 
until 1850, when he died snddenly of cholera, at the 
General Conference in St. Louis. 

If not a brilliant, he was a highly gifted man. One 
whose clear head, and whose determined will, and 
whose consecrated heart, made him a most valuable 
]nan to the Church. He did all kinds of hard work, 
and well won his place among the first of the con- 
ference. He was the older brother of Dr. Jesse 
Boring, who entered the conference two j^ears after him. 

Still the work of increase goes on. The total Avhite 

membership reported at the conference was 14,186 

Avhites, an increase of over two thousand during the 

vear. 
t/ 

The conference met in Angusta, January 11, 1827. 
There were three bishops present. McKendree, 
Roberts, and Soule. This was Soule's second visit to 
Georgia as bishop. He was now about forty-six years 
old. He was as erect as an Indian, with an eye of most 
piercing brilliancy; a face of great comeliness, expres- 
sive of great courage and dignity. He was evei-y inch 
a commander, and thus every inch a Methodist Bishop. 



234 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



He liad now been a preacher for twenty-eight j^ears. 
For half that time he had travelled in the forests of 
Maine. He had braved all the perils of the wildest 
frontier. He had traversed almost trackless forests, 
had swam angry streams, and in winter his clothing 
sometimes froze to his person as he emerged from the 
torrent. He had faced highwaymen in the Western 
wilds, had travelled through the hunting grounds of 
nil tamed savages, had been exposed to every peril of 
travel ; had been the target for the arrows of brethren, 
who were bitterly hostile ; but he had never swerved 
a hair's breadth from the path of duty, nor quailed be- 
foie any danger. During this conference he preached 
a sermon on the " Perfect law of Liberty," which Dr. 
Few, no unfit jndge, declared to be the greatest ser- 
mon he had ever heard ; but which was foolishly de- 
nounced as heretical. An attack was made npon it in 
the Charleston Observer, and Dr. Capers came to its 
defence. At the Greneral Conference of 1S28 the charge 
was referred to a committee, who found no fault in the 
sermon. It was nearly forty years after this that this 
grand old man passed away in holy triumph, crying out 
with his last breath, ''Push on the great work." His 
life is so interwoven with the history of Methodism in 
Georgia, that we shall see him again, and after time. 
Joshua Sonle had few peers among even great men. 
He was a man if not of colossal intellect, certainly of 
colossal spirit ; fearless of every danger, clear-headed, 
conscientious, lie was a commander whom men might 
well consent to obey ; a leader whom all might safely 
follow. 

At this conference Thomas Samford was placed on 
the Athens District. These were his days of strength, 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



235 



and he travelled a district extending from the mountains 
of Ilabersliam to the Flint River in Fayette, and in old 
Georgia and new made his power felt everywhere. 

AVni. Arnold was now placed in charge of the Mil- 
ledgeville District, and Samnel K. Hodges sent to the 
Milledo:eville station. John Howard was ao:aiii at Wash- 
ington, and Lewis Myers, worn down by hard laboi*, 
retired to his farm in Effingham County, to work for, 
pra}^ for, and think for the church of his love. The work 
in Florida still goes on, and the missionary reaches the 
remote settler in the far East and in the far West. 

The Chattahoochee Circuit had on it this year a young 
man who was to make his name known all over the 
Southern work. This was Jesse Borino*. 

Jesse Avas the brother of Isaac Boring, and was two 
years his junior. He had been a Christian from his 
early boyhood, and was but eighteen years old when 
he was received into the conference and sent to this 
remote circuit. His parents were then living in Gwin- 
nett County. He must ride from the mountains through 
the Indian country for several hundred miles, to reach 
his first circuit, which extended to the Gulf. He found 
the people of the rudest type of frontiersmen, the 
houses far apart, the forest almost unbroken, and a ride 
of over 300 miles each month, extending into three 
States, before him. His home had been the home of 
refinement and piety. He was a shrinking and gentle- 
spirited lad ; and now, at only eighteeii, he was thrown 
among strangers, and exposed to all the perils of the 
wilderness. His presiding elder, used to hardships and 
to dangers himself, had but little sympathy for one so 
woman-like and gentle, and told him he had better go 
back to his mother ; but the great heart of Elisha Cal- 



236 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



laway, his colleague, yearned over him as over a son, 
and he tenderh' encouraged and comforted him, and 
thus Jesse Boring passed his first year. What his after 
career has been, this history can only tell, as we meet 
with him on our way ; and yet it would not be an un- 
profitable story for a young preacher to hear, of how, 
amid such difiiculties as these, Jesse Boring won his way 
to the front rank among pulpit orators in America, and 
secured a cnltivation of mind not often secured by the 
inmates of colleo-e halls. 

This was a year of wonderful revival power in Georgia 
and Florida, i^ot only were the Methodists greatl}^ 
blessed, but their faithful colaborers, the Baptists, ]'eaped 
a grand harvest. One cannot withhold his tribute of 
praise to the noble, self-sacrificing men of God who 
labored in this Church. Jacob Kiiig, Zechariah Gordon, 
Head Garland, Milner, in western Georgia, Jolin E. 
Dawson, Jesse Mercer, ]iow in his old age, Screven 
Brantley, Kilpatrick, in the East, were strong men and 
good men. As yet there was no division in the Church, 
and Mosely and others, who were on the anti-missionary 
side in after-time, were at tliis time eflicient revivalists. 
The revival influence was not confined to one section of 
the State. There was a great meeting in Milledgeville. 
William Arnold was presiding elder of the Milledge- 
ville District. James O. Andrew, who had come on a 
visit from South Carolina, where he was stationed^ John 
Howard and Lovick Pierce and Stephen Olin, all united 
to work for Milledo-eville. A laro^e bush arbor was 
erected, and the services v^^ere like those of a camp- 
n.ieeting. The preaching was with power, and the re- 
sults were glorious. In this four days' meeting over 
one hundred were converted. 



IN GEORGIA AXD FLORIDA, 1785-1S65. 



237 



During this year some of the same corj^s of revivalists 
went to Washington. The population of that promising 
town was noted for wealth, hospitality, refinement, and, 
alas, for skepticism and wickedness. John Ploward 
was preacher in charge of AYashington, and Pierce and 
Olin came to his help. Olin preached witli matchless 
power, and under one of his sermons on evidences all 
skepticism took flight. A wonderful work followed, and 
over 100 were added to the Church. From this time 
forward Washington has been a most desirable appoint- 
ment. For forty years, under the old circuit plan, no 
impress had been made on the town, and when Thomas 
Darley came in 1824, there was no church building, 
and only fourteen members. After this a church was 
built ; but although the ablest ministers supplied the 
pulpit, there had not been much success ; but this year 
it came. 

In Greensboro, Howard and Pierce had their homes, 
and there Adiel Sherwood and others of the Baptist 
Church resided also. They determined to storm the 
battlements, and beo-an a meetino\ Auo-ustus B. Lono;- 
Street was Judge of the Circuit Court. Tie was highly 
educated, had been religiously trained by a Presbyterian 
mother, and was, while moral and upright in conduct, 
in religion a skeptic. He had married a Methodist, he 
lived in a Methodist family, and when his first keen 
sorrow came in the death of his little boy, he found no 
comfort in his cheerless creed of doubt. His brother- 
in-law told him of Christ. He began to study Jesus ; 
he believed ; though as yet he did not trust. He came 
to the meeting. Adiel Sherwood preached, and John 
Howard followed him in an exhortation. Penitentis 
were invited forward, and Judge Longstreet came with 



238 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



them. God converted liim. Ho soon began to preacli, 
and we shall see him again. Tlie Apalachee Circuit 
was ablaze. Athens had a precious revival. At Bear 
Creek, in Newton, nearly 300, according to the Metho- 
dist Magazine^ were converted. Thomas Saraford 
wrote to the mao-aziue : The Lord is doino; p;reat 
things in Georgia. Keligion pure and undefiled may 
now be seen not only in the church, but on the farms, 
behind the counter, at the bar, and the bench. Some 
of our courts are now opened with prayer by the Judge 
himself." Wm. Capej'S writes: I am just from 
Georgia. The wort there has been transcendant every 
way." Allen Turner says, "About 400 have been 
added to the Warren Circuit." 

In Madison, Moi'gan County, there had up to this 
time been no church building, but during the revival 
of this year, so many were received into the counnunion 
that a churcli was built. The village of Greensboro 
was founded in 1786, and as Greene was in the circuit 
of Humphries and Major, the Methodist preachers 
probably preached in the town almost as soon as it was 
settled ; but when Bishop Asbuiy visited it in 1799, 
there was as yet no Metliodist church, and he preached 
in the Presbyterian. Some time after there was a httle 
log-church built ou the outskirts of the town, but after 
Dr. Pierce settled there, in 1815, at his instance a better 
house was built, on a better lot, and he incautiously 
assumed the whole pecuniary responsibility, from which 
he was not relieved till after this o^reat revival in 1827. 

This w^as the first year an appointment was made to 
Macon, of which we have given account in another 
chapter. 

While the work was so fruitful in blessings in the 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1S65. 



239 



older counties, all over the new country the revival fire 
blazed. Baptists and Methodists alike participated in 
the blessings. In Florida too, there was the same pre- 
cious results. On the Talh^hassee and Pea River Mis- 
sion the membership was more than doubled. Camp- 
meetings were held in every circuit in Georgia, and a 
blesshig attended them all. Perhaps no year in the 
history of the Church in Georgia has been one of richer 
interest than that of 1827. 

The Conference for 1S28 met in Camden, S. C. 
Bishop Soule presided. There was an increase of nearly 
4,000 white members. The Churcli had doubled its 
membership since 1823. 

At this session there was an election for delegates to 
the general conference, which was to meet in May. 
Tlie delegates elected were James O. Andrew, Capers, 
Kennedy, Pierce, Bass, Dan woody, Hodges, Geo. Hill, 
Arnold, Hammill, McPherson, Adams, and Elijah Sin- 
clair. 

Lewis Myers was unable to take the long journey to 
Pittsburg, and was not elected. The proceedings of 
t ids general conference were unimportant. The greater 
part of the session was taken up in hearing appeals, 
and in meeting some of the questions which had sprung 
up during the excitement of the last four years. Wm. 
Capers and Joshua Soule were selected as fraternal mes- 
enofers to the Weslevan Conference in EnMand. 

There was to be still further enlargement in the work 
in Georgia. The territory west of the Flint Kiver was 
now c»pen to settlers. It was even superior in fertility 
to that which adjoined it on the east, and was soo]i 
thickly peopled. At once the missionary was sent. 
Coweta and Carroll were made a circuit, and a supply 



210 



HISTORY OF METHODISxM 



from the local ranks selected. John Hunter was sent 
to the Troup Mission, and James Stockdale to Columbus. 
Upson was made a separate circuit, and James Dun- 
wood}^ Avas sent to it. Although Jacob King and Zacha- 
riah Gordon, of the Baptist Church, had received several 
hundred in this county into the Baptist Church, there 
were still 491 Methodists in Upson. In the new coun- 
try of southwest Georgia a mission was formed, called 
the Lee Mission, and Morgan Turrentine was sent to it. 
This was the introduction of the Church into the coun- 
ties of Sumpter, Lee, Randolph, and Stewart. John 
Howard, after having been nominally local for several 
Years, re-entered the re^-ular work, and was returned to 
Washino;ton. 

James Dannelly, who for several years had travelled 
in South Carolina, was sent to the Little Kiver Circuit. 
Uncle Jimmy Dannelly, as he was generally called, was 
a remarkable man. Lie was born in Columbia County 
in 1786. He grew up to manhood with but little men- 
tal and still less moral trainino- ; he became verv dissi- 

O ? a/ 

pated, and while leading this wayward life, lost a leg. 
When he was thirty j^ears old he was converted, and 
soon after licensed to preach. After travelling from 
1818 in the South Carolina part of the conference, he 
came to Georgia. i?Lfter the division of the conference 
he remained in South Carolina, and was superannuated 
in 1835. In 1S55 he died. He was noted for Jn's 
sometimes moving elocpience, and for his more frequent 
sharpness of rebuke. He was a terror to evil-doers. 
Sarcasm was his favorite weapon, and he did not always 
spare his friends. He seemed to feel it a duty to be 
severe. Some of the authentic stories told of him are 
amusing illustrations of this proclivity, but like all 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



241 



tilings of the kind lose much of their flavor in putting 
them on paper. 

On^ce old Father Ferryman, an old Baptist preacher, 
said to him : 

" Brother Dannelly, you have heard me preach ? " 
"No!" 

In vain the old gentleman tried to bring to his 
remembrance the times when they had been together ; 
still Uncle Jimmy denied that he had ever heard him 
preach; at last he sharply said, "No, Brother Ferry- 
man, I never heard you preach, but I have heard you 
try many a time." 

Another good Baptist twitted him with having bap- 
tized some of his sheep, 

^' They were not my sheep." 

" Did they not belong to such a church ? " 

" Yes, but they were not my sheep." 

" Well, what were they ? " 

"Why, they were my hogs." 

" How do you make that out? " 

'^From the Bible." 

"How?" 

" Why, the Bible says the devil entered in the swine, 
and they took to the water right away." 

One day, he was at camp-meeting with Bishop Fierce 
when he was a presiding elder. Of course he was asked 
to preach. 

" George," said he, " shall 1 rake 'em % " 
"Do as you please. Uncle Jimmy." 
" But, George, shall 1 rake 'em \ " 
" Well, if I have my preference, I'd rather you would 
not do so," 

He went to the stand, and preached a moving, 



242 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



pathetic sermon on the discouragements of the Chris- 
tian. All were melted and comforted ; when he 
returned to the tent, however, he was sad. " George," 
said he, " I did wrong. I onght to have raked 'em.'^ 

John Wimbish entered into the regnlar work this 
year, and with M. Bedell, afterward prominent in the 
Florida wwk, he was on the Monroe Circuit. He had 
been many years a local preacher, and in those days, 
when hyper-Calvinism of the extremest type was often 
preached, he felt himself called upon to defend what 
he believed was the truth, and was very able on the 
Arminian view of the doctrines of grace. 

On the Warren Circnit with Allen Turner was a 
young man, the nephew of Wm. Arnold, W. P. Arnold. 
For forty years he was an active, popnlar and useful 
preacher. Genial, social, full of humor, simple in his 
manners, without ambition or jealousy, few men have 
been more lovable or more loved. lie was at one time 
a man of property, but as his plantation cares interfered 
with his ministry, he sold his land and lost the debt. 
He however cheerfully labored on, sometimes even 
walking his circuit. In 1870 he was appointed to the 
Milledgeville station, but before his removal to it he 
was stricken with apoplexy, and died with a single 
groan. 

George Pournell began his work this year. He was 
a man of very deep piety, and did most efficient work 
on the hardest missions in the conference, until 1835, 
when he located. 

Continuing the course which had been so successful 
in Greene, Wilkes, and Clarke, two other small towns 
were united in a station, and Lovick Pierce was sent to 
Eatonton and Madison. The two villages were at tliat 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



243 



time both very flourishing, and were seats of refine- 
ment and wealth. Madison was laid out in 1807, and 
from its settlement had been an appointment in the 
Apalachee Circuit, which had been served by the 
ablest men in the conference. The county of Morgan 
was very populous, the lands were generally good, and 
those on the rivers and creeks very good. The first 
church in Madison was built about 1825. 

Eatonton, the county-site of Putnam, was laid out at 
the same time, and had now been settled for twenty 
years. It was an appointment in the Alcovy Circuit, 
which next to the Apalachee had been one of the most 
important of the Middle Georgia Circuits. 

The old Putnam Camp-ground had been the scene of 
many great revivals, and Methodism was strong in every 
way in the county. Dr. Pierce, who now had charge 
of the two villages, lived in Greensboro, but occupied 
the pulpit each Sabbath, spending a large part of the 
time in the work assigned him. 

Josiah Flournoy was the leading member of the 
Church in Eatonton. He had descended from the 
Huguenots, who had settled on the James River, in 
Virginia. His mother was a Baptist, and his father 
one in feeling. Josiah and Robert, his brother, had 
been converted among the Methodists, and united with 
them, and when he removed to Putnam, he took charge 
of the little class. 

There was no church previous to 1819, and public 
worship was held in the academy of the town. For 
years Josiah Flournoy stood ahnost alone. His asso- 
ciates and friends were all of them irreligious, and 
many of the leading men gamblers and infidels. The 
Rev. Mr. Pendleton, a member of the Christian Church, 



2U 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



had moved to tlie commmiity, and was clerk of the conrt. 
He was a Virginian gentleman of liberal views, and de- 
termhied to have a church built. It was to be a fine 
church and a union church. The Baptists, Methodists, 
Presbyterians and Chi-istians were to have one Sunday 
each. Pie succeeded in his effort, and the handsomest 
church in Middle Georgia was erected. Not long after 
this Wm. Capers visited the county in the interests of 
the Asbury Mission. He attracted then, as lie always 
did, great crowds, and at the Putnam camp-meeting he 
achieved the grandest pulpit triumph of his life. It 
w^as in an exhortation delivered after a sermon, in 
which the fearful woes of a lost soul were depicted. 
One man was so affected by the preacher's eloquence as 
to temporarily lose his mind, and many prominent men 
were brought to deep conviction and joyous conversion. 
Among them were those who became eminent in church 
and state. Dr. Henry Branham was one of them. He 
was an accomplished physician and a man of very tine 
native mind, but he was very ungodly. Among his rul 
ing passions was that of gaming, too common then among 
respectable people. As soon as he was converted, ho 
sought out the men from whom he had won money, and 
returned it to them. He was from this time forth a 
leader in all good things. Rev, W. K. Branham, of the 
Georgia Conference, is his son. Eatonton had now a 
strong membership, and was united with Madison, 
twenty-five miles away, and Dr. Pierce was sent to it. 

Josiah Flournoy, of whom mention was made above, 
was a striking character, a man of great energy and 
enterprise, and one of inflexible integrity. He had 
great respect for hard work, and said whenever he 
found a man at the mournei's- bench whose hand was 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1S65. 



245 



hard from labor, he felt that the man ^vonld be con- 
yerted ; but if his hand was soft and delicate, he was 
not so sure. He was the originator of the prohibitory 
liquor movement in Georgia, and when it required far 
more courage than it does now to attack the evil, he 
made a bold, if unsuccessful attack upon it. He gave 
a large endowment for a manual labor school in Talbot 
County, and was one of the generous friends of Emory 
College, contributing at one time six hundred dollars 
for its relief. His family follows in his footsteps, and 
his descendants are among the truest members of the 
Church in the State now. 

Dr. E. M. Pendleton, the son of the Kev. Edward 
Pendleton, of whom we have spoken, has furnished for 
this history the following interesting sketch of this ex- 
cellent man. 

" Josiah Flournoy, a layman, was a man remarkable 
for his prayers, public exhortations, and labor at the 
altar. He was quite wealthy, owning a large number 
of negroes, and several plantations. He carried on all 
his secular concerns with great system, energy, and 
stringency, but was at the same time prompt in all his 
religious duties and obligations. He was always pres- 
ent when not providentially hindered in the old class- 
house at Eatonton, with the whites first, and then with 
the colored on Sunday afternoon, praying and exhort- 
ing them with much effect. At camp-meeting he was 
a great power, not only managing accommodations for 
the preachers and visitants, but in the altar, and some- 
times in the pulpit. 

" Although not a preacher, he was often allowed an 
hour to expound the word and bring some important 
matter before the people. 



246 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



"I remember him well at the great carap-meetii]g 
in Monroe Connty in 1832, when hundreds were awak- 
ened and converted. He most generally took the out- 
skirts of the congregation among the men lookers-on, 
and would exhort them until the effect became appa- 
rent, and then he would pray for them. In this way 
he would soon gather a batch of mourners, pray- 
ing, singing, and applying the promises for hours to- 
gether. In fact, the whole day and a good part of the 
night were thus employed by him and others in this 
way. 

" The last time I ever saw Josiah Flournoy was in his 
great temperance enterprise in 1839. He endeavored 
to convince the people of Georgia of the necessity of 
passing stringent laws against the sale of spirituous 
liquor. For this purpose he combined all the temper- 
ance element of the State, going from town to town, 
from church to church, holding meetings, and getting 
subscribers to his petition. He enlisted Judge Sayre of 
Sparta, and other prominent men. 

" He w^ent to nearly every county in the State on this 
mission, and was treated very badly in several places by 
the sons of Belial. At Clinton they shaved the tail of 
his horse, at other places he received personal indigni- 
ties, and his life was threatened. Although his effort 
was a failure, yet no doubt it accomplished much good, 
which will be revealed in the day of eternity." 

Dr. Pendleton also says that tlie man who lost bis 
miud from the effect of Bishop Capers' sermon, after 
three months insanity recovered it, and lived a good 
man afterwards. Bishop Capers did not hear of his re- 
covery for some years, and when he did it was much to 
his gratification. At the camp-meeting of this year in 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



247 



Putnam, Jas. O. Andrew, John Howard and Jos. Travis 
were present, and there was much good done. 

During this year there was a precious revival in 
Athens. Many of the students were converted. There 
was a great work in Walton and Gwinnett. 

Jere. Norman was in charge of the Houston Mission, 
which embraced all the country soutli of Macon, to the 
Early Mission. He bore the name of one of the first 
travelling preachers, and was probably a kinsman of 
his. He was a man of very deep piety and very fine 
gifts. He was, however, one of the ugliest of men, and 
once Thomas Darley, his colleague, gave out an appoint- 
ment for him by saying: '^If you will be here two 
weeks from to-day, you will see one of the ugliest men 
and hear one of the best preachers in the connection." 

Jno. H. Robinson, who was on the laro:e Ocmulo-ee 
Circuit this year, was from Bibb County. He was a 
good man and a faithful preacher for over forty years, 
and died in the w^ork, although for a few years before 
his death he had been superannuated. 

Although there was some decrease in the older sec- 
tions, such w^as the prosperity in the new country that 
there was considerable increase in the ao-o-reo^ate mem- 
bership. The conference met in Milledgeville, January 
12, 1826, Bishop Soule presiding. 

At this conference, Stephen Olin was ordained a 
deacon. He was a Yermonter, and w^as now in the 
twenty -ninth year of his age. After his graduation at 
college, he had come to the South to teach a school and 
to recruit his health. If he was not at this time an in- 
fidel, he was a sceptic. The academy to which he was 
called was the Tabernacle Academy, in Abbeville Dis- 
trict, S. C, which had been established by some Metho- 



248 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



dists. The Master was required to open the school with 
prayer, and though Olin was not a believer, yet he con- 
sented to meet the demand. He became very restless un- 
der this state of things and was deeply convicted of sin. 
He be2:an to examine the evidences of the Divine orioj-in 
of Cliristianity. His intellect was soon convinced, and 
his heart was soon at rest, and not long after he began 
to preach. At one bound he reached the foremost 
place among southern Methodist preachers. He gave 
liimself with ardor to the work, and nnited with the 
conference. He w^as sent to Charleston with James O. 
Andrew for his presiding elder, and John Howard as 
his senior preacher. Here he attracted great attention, 
but his health failed him. His after-life was almost a 
continual battle with feebleness. He was nnable to 
continue his pastorate, and was elected professor of 
belles-lettres at Athens. He thus became a citizen 
of Georgia. He married one of the loveliest of women, 
Miss Mary Ann Bostwick, one whose family position 
was the highest, and one w^hose beauty was the pride of 
her State ; she was withal a simple-hearted Christian. 
He now settled himself in Athens. Here he did y/on- 
derful preaching, and was, as far as strength permitted, 
fully devoted to his w^ork. When Eandolph Macon 
College was founded, he was elected its president, but 
failing health drove him from his place there and exiled 
him to Europe. He i-eturned to his beloved South no 
more. His gentle wife died in Naples, Italy, and when 
he returned to America, he sought the more bracing cli- 
mate of the North, and was elected President of the 
Wesleyan University of Yermont. 

The abolition excitement in New England was now 
intense. Olin had been a slaveholder, and wa*3 now in 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



249 



the possession of a considerable estate derived from the 
sale of his slaves. He believed his New England breth- 
ren were sadly mistaken and sadly unwise in their 
course, but he could not stay the tide. He was elected 
to the General Conference of 1844. He saw, before the 
conference met, that the issue must come, but still hoped 
for peace ; and, to add to his embarrassment and to his 
sorrow, the victim chosen was James O. Andrew, his 
dearest earthly friend. The question was at length be- 
fore the conference. Should he vote against his friend 
by voting for the Finley resolutions ? Olin thought in 
no other way could the Church in New England be 
saved. Bishop Andrew told the writer that the evening 
before the vote was taken, Olin took him aside and said 
to him : 

" James, you know I love you, and you know I do 

not blame you for the course you have taken, and yet I 

shall vote for the resolution to-morrow. It is the only 

way to save the Church in the North ; the South will go 

off, but it will do so en masse and united. H we do not 

pass this resolution, the North will go off in fragments, 

and there will be only strife and bitterness." The nexi 

day he did so vote. He lost many friends in the South ; 

many who had greatly admired him bitterly denounced 

him, but he did not lose his place in the great heart of 

Bishop Andrew, for that grand old man spoke of him 

as lovingly at the last as though Olin had stood by him 

bravely through the conflict. Olin earnestly advocated 

the plan of separation, and lost many friends on the 

other side by his advocacy of it. He never ceased to 

love the South, nor did the South cease to love him. 

Here he had won his first souls for Christ. Here he had 

gained what he cared for leasts his first pulpit and plat- 
11^ 



250 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



form fame. Here he married his first beautiful wife, 
and here much of his heart always was. 

Stephen Olin never had a superior in the American 
pulpit, and it is doubtful whether in any sphere of pub- 
lic life there was a greater mind than his. 

Pie was so identified with the Georgia work, that we 
shall see him often as we pursue this history. 

Charles Hardy, a very gifted young man, was in 
Savannah this year. He was the son of pious parents 
in Lincoln Countj^; was converted when a boy, and be- 
gan to travel ere his majority. He evinced fine qualities 
as a preacher from the beginning, and did most valuable 
work, filling the best appointments until his health failed 
him. He then retired for a short time, and located and 
settled in Culloden. He was a man of very liberal 
views, and, for that time, of large wealth. He gave 
$1,000 to Emory College, and was for one year its agent. 
He was one of the fathers of the Manual Labor School, 
and a leading friend of the High School at Culloden, 
which was tendered to the conference before there was 
a Methodist school in the State. His ardent tempera- 
ment led him into large land speculations, and in the 
crash of 1839-40 he lost his estate. He removed to 
Alabama, and was appointed as a supply to the Tusca- 
loosa station. He would have entered the travelling 
ministry again if his life had been spared, but that year 
he died. He w^as a highly gifted man, and would prob- 
ably have reached the highest place if he had never 
deviated from his life-work. 

La Grange first appears as an appoiutment this year, 
under the charge of John Hunter, La Grange was the 
county-site of Troup County, and was laid out in 1827. 
The county is on the western border of the State, and 



m GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



251 



at that time was one of the most fertile and healthy 
in it. The circuit included a part of the at present 
county of Plarris, all Meriwether, and a part of Heard, 
in addition to all of Troup. The church in La Grange 
was organized in January of the year 1828, and Caleb 
W. Key, then a young married man, who had moved 
to this new village from McDonough, was one of the 
twelve members who made the church, and was the 
first class-leader. 

Troup, Harris, and Meriwether presented great in- 
ducements to settlers, and they were soon settled by a 
most admirable body of people, a very large part of 
whom were from Greene County. 

After the establishment of the society in La Grange, 
a log-church, the first of any name in the town, was 
built. This gave way in a few years to a larger framed 
l)uilding. Until the great revival of 1838, this plain 
shell was the only place of worship among the Metho- 
dists. At that time the Church was very wealthy, but 
it contented itself with making the old building com- 
fortable. After the building of the La Grange Female 
College, and the large increase in the population of the 
town, a very handsome and commodious brick church 
was completed, which still supplies the Methodists vvith 
a place of worship. Thomas Stanley, Thomas Samford, 
Walter T. Colquitt, and Alexander Speer were among 
the preachers who had their homes in La Grange • and 
George Heard, who had been a Methodist in Greene, 
removed to it in 1838. He was an earnest, devoted 
Methodist, a man of very great business capacity, con- 
ducting very large planting interests. He lived to see' 
the Church greatly blessed by a remarkable revival, 
and after seeing all his children converted^ in a ripe old 



252 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



age he passed away. He was a man of striking pecu- 
liarities, and became a Christian in a somew^hat remark- 
able way. A pushing business man, one day he was 
calculating what his crop would bring, what he would 
buy with it, when he suddenly stopped. " Why, George 
Heard ! you can calculate about this world ; what 
about your soul ? " He began to pray, and God con- 
verted him. 

The Rev. P. A. Heard, of the North Georgia Confer- 
ence, is his son. 

James Stockdale at this conference was appointed 
to the Columbus Mission. He w^as to explore and 
oi'ganize the Church in the new country west of 
the Flint, which was just opened to settlers. His 
mission embraced Muscogee, Talbot, and a part of 
Harris. He left his home in South Carolina, and 
reached the eastern part of his circuit early in 1828. 
While crossing the Flint at a ferry in Talbot County, 
he inquired if there were any Methodists near by, and 
w^as referred to Josiah Matthews, who is still living 
(1877). He was gladly received, and the few scattered 
inhabitants were called together, and a society was 
formed, and soon after a log-church, built. This was 
probably the first church west of the Flint. It was 
known as Corinth. The log-church soon gave way to a 
better one, and now there is a handsome country church, 
with a large society in its place ; and Josiah Mattliews, 
with a large family of descendauts, still holds his place 
among its members.^ 

This year Coweta and Carroll appear as a new mis- 
sion left to be supplied. As Dabney P. Jones was 



*MSS. from Rev, W. H. Tegner. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLOKIDA, 17S5-1865. 



253 



living in Coweta, and as he had been at an early day a 
travelling preacher, it is probable he was the snp)ply. 
It is certain he preached the first sermon preached 
in the town of iSTewnan, in the little log-house which 
served for the first coui't-rooni. The circuit was very 
large, including not only all of Coweta, but all of Car- 
roll Counties, extendino; from near Atlanta to the Ala- 
bama line, and embracing a country a part of which 
was rich and productive and well-peopled, and a part 
of it wild and thinly settled. 

In the year 1S2S it appears regularly supplied from 
the conference. 

The Florida work still went on in the midst of difli- 
culties. A body of settlers had settled on Pea Eiver, 
in the west of Florida, and a camp-meeting was held 
there. Altliough there were not more than 150 people 
present, there were twenty-one conversions. In the far 
w^est of Florida, at Holmes Yalley Mission, there was 
also a successful work. 

At this conference Xathaniel Rhodes was sent to 
Habersham County, wdiich bordered on the Cherokee 
isation, and whose beautiful valleys were even now 
settled by the adventurous pioneer. During the year 
he crossed over into the Nation, and joined hands with 
preachers from the Tennessee Conference, who were 
holding a camp-meeting among the Indians. There 
were fifteen or twenty Indians converted. 

Benjamin Pope was junior on the Apalachee Cir- 
cuit with Anderson Pay. He was connected with 
that family of Popes wdio have been identified with 
Methodism in Georgia since its introduction into the 
State. He was liberally educated, and was a man of 
ample wealth. 



254 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



He gave himself to the travelling ministiy in his 
twenty-fourth year, and continued to travel until his 
early death, in 1835. Few men have more richly merited 
or more generally received affection. He was pure, 
eloquent, accomplished, welcome to the most important 
stations, and useful in all. His health soon gave way, 
and while yet young he died. 

Bond English, a South Carolinian, took Dr. Capers' 
place on the Milledgeville Station. Eobert Flournoy, 
the brother of Josiali Flournoy, of whom we have 
spoken and shall speak again, was made presiding elder 
on the Savannah District. Flournoy had been con- 
verted at the Sparta camp-meeting, and had entered 
the conference. He travelled some years, and did effi- 
cient work, then located and settled in Houston County, 
where he lived a local preacher until his death. Two 
new missions were enterprised : the Fayette Mission, 
upon which Jolm Hunter was sent, took the lower part 
of the territory included in the Yellow Eiver Mission, 
and the Houston Mission included a part of the Mon- 
roe Circuit, and all the country soutli of it to the Early 
Mission. McCarrell Purifoy was sent to it. Lewis 
Myers took the Effingham Circuit as supernumerary. 

The great Ohoopee Circuit gave up enough of its 
territory to form the Liberty Circuit, and Wilkes 
County for the first time became a separate circuit. 
Thus the contraction of circuit lines, and the increase 
of ministerial force went on. The great revival con- 
tinued, and 2,000 w^ere added to the Church. In the 
new purchase the revival seems to have been con- 
tinued. Monroe, Gwinnett, Walton, Yellow River, doub- 
led their membership this year. There was especially 
great prosperity in the Monroe Circuit, which then in- 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



255 



eluded Pike and Upson Camp-meetings, which had been 
introdnced into Georgia as early as ISOS, had become 
an institution. In all the counties there was one, and 
in some of them there were two or more camp-grounds. 
In the new purchase the cannp-ground was immediately 
selected. In 1825 the first camp- meeting was held in 
Monroe County, near old Mt. Zion, and in Upson near 
Thomas Maybrey's. Originally, jnst where the preacher 
and his leading members thought there ought to be a 
camp-meeting, the spot was selected. The work was 
all temporary, but afterwards there was a shingle-roofed 
tabernacle, good seats, plank tents, and royal hospi- 
tality ; but in the new country the old plan was the first 
adopted — a bush arbor, logs for seats, and a plain stand. 
The presiding elder w^as in charge, and brought preach- 
ers from the country round about to aid him. A won- 
derful work generally was done. 

People came by thousands, for this new country was 
for no length of time, after it was opened to settlement, 
thinly settled. Its contiguity to the older counties, its 
security against the hostility of savages, its fine soil 
and genial climate, and the gratuitous distribution of 
the land, brought scores of thousands into it. In four 
years after Monroe County was settled, 1,700 votes 
were cast at Forsyth, the only precinct in the county. 
There were at the Monroe Camp-ground over 100 
tents, and hundreds came in wagons and bivouacked. 
Ten thousand persons were supposed to have been 
present at one camp-meeting there, and it was no un- 
common thing for over 100 to be converted during the 
four days. The great battle-fields of Methodism in 
the new purchase were the camp-grounds, and many 
were the victories won on them. 



256 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



The work in Florida continued to prosper, and Talla- 
hassee was made a station, and Josiah Freeman was 
sent to it, the first stationed preacher in Florida. Adam 
Wjrick and D. McDonald came to the Leon Circuit, 
which then included Leon, Jeifei-son, Gadsden, and 
Madison. In the southwest of Florida on Pea River, 
there was still prosperity, and 314 white and colored 
members were reported. 

The hardships endured in this part of the work was 
very great. The preachers were often removed from 
circuits in the up-country of Georgia, and sent to this 
remote section. There were neither railroads nor 
public conveyances of any kind, and the whole journey 
had to be made on horseback. Isaac Boring, now a 
deacon, was ordered from the Kee wee Circuit in South 
Carolina, to Pensacola in Florida, while Adam Wyrick 
went from the Monroe Circuit, Ga., to Leon County 
in Florida, which reached to the shores of the Gulf. 
The work of revival still went on, and 20,204 white 
members were reported as the total to the conference. 

The next conference was held in Charleston, Janu- 
ary 28, 1829, Bishop McKendree presiding. Thomas 
Samford still continued in his place as presiding elder 
of the Athens District, Wm. Arnold still on the Mil- 
ledgeville. Josiah Evans came back from Florida and 
was placed on the Savannah, and Henry Bass came 
to Georgia, and was put upon the Augusta. 

A new district was made in the western part of the 
State, and Andrew Hammill was placed upon it. This, 
the Columbia District, included all that section between 
the Flint and Chattahoochee north of Columbus. Ham- 
mill, while on the district, had charge of Columbus 
Churchu 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



257 



James O. Andrew now returned to Georgia, and 
was stationed at Athens and Greensboro. John Howard 
with Benj. Pope were on the Apalachee, and Macon, 
now made a station, had Dr. Few as its pastor. Dr. 
Pierce was sent to Eatonton and Clinton. Clinton, the 
county-site of Jones, was an appointment in the old 
Cedar Creek Circuit. It was a place of considerable 
importance, being in the midst of a fine cotton -pro- 
ducing country. In it there was much wealth and 
style, and alas ! infidelity and dissipation. The first 
Sunday after Dr. Pierce came, he was preaching an 
earnest and impressive sermon, when a fashionably 
dressed lady, the w^ife of one of the most distinguished 
and wealthy lawyers of the community, became over- 
come by her feelings and swooned away. She recov- 
ered consciousness, and was soon a converted woman. 
She long lived an exemplary Christian life. Years 
before, when she resided in another part of the State, 
she had heard Dr. Pierce, a young presiding elder, 
preach, and had been overcome and stricken down 
then. She had seen him no more until this time, and 
the flood of old memories brought back old convictions, 
with a happier result. 

Madison was connected this year with Monticello. 
Monticello was the county-site of Jasper, and had been 
settled since 1807. It was, while not a large, yet a flour- 
ishing county town, but did not long retain its position 
as a half -station. 

With this year commences the w^ork which w^as to be 
pushed forward with so much energy and success, the 
mission work among the colored people, and James 
Dannelly, the first missionary, had charge of the Broad 
Kiver Mission. From the beginning the colored people 



258 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



had been the special care of the Methodist preachers. 
In every church there was a place for them. They 
were received into the societies and invited to the Com- 
munion table. Men of their own color were licensed to 
preach to them, and there was at this time over 6,000 
members in the conference ; but they could not all be 
reached by a ministry which preached largely in the 
week, and it was evident that if they were reached at 
all it must be by special work. 

Thomas H. Capers entered the work this j^ear. He 
was the nephew of William Capers, and was a young 
man of decided talents, who took a good position in the 
Church. After travelling some years he located, then 
returning from the West, where he filled important posi- 
tions, he was readmitted into the itinerancy and united 
with the Florida Conference, and there died in charge 
of the Monticello Station, in the year 1867." 

James Hunter, who was appointed to the Alcovi 
Circuit, was one of two brothers who did good work for 
the Church. He had travelled nine years in the South 
Carolina Conference, then married and located in 
Jasper County, and after fifteen years' location he re- 
entered the work, and in it he died. He was a pioneer, 
and was in the new country of Georgia from its settle- 
ment till his superannuated relation commenced. He 
organized the work in several of the new counties. 
He was gentle, meek, patient, brave, and mucli be- 
loved by those whom he served. He died in peace, 
December 10, 1862, having been nearly sixty years a 
preachei'.f 

John Hunter was his brother, and his faithful cola- 



Minutes. 



t Ibid. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



259 



borer. After some years of usefulness in Georo-ia, lie 
moved to Alabama, where he continnecl his work. 

These brothers were not gifted men, but zealous men 
and good men, and did much good. 

In those days of large circuits protracted meetings 
were not common, and the value of the camp-meetings 
was incalculable. Methodism advanced as the newer 
settlements advanced, rapidly, but while there was great 
prosperity in the newer, in the older sections there was 
less increase, since the older counties were supplying 
population to the recently settled. There was not such 
increase as in the years preceding, but there was a net 
gain of 1,627 over the year before. The conference 
met in Columbia, S. C, January 30, 1830. It was 
the last session in which Georgia received her appoint- 
ments from the South Carolina Conference. The terri- 
tory was too wide in area, and the preachers too numer- 
ous for one body, and a natural line of division was 
found in the Savannah Kiver, which was adopted as the 
liiie, and thenceforward there were the South Carolina 
and the Georma Conferences. The Georgia took Georgia 
and Florida; the South Carolina, South Carolina and 
jSTorth Carolina. This presents a proper time and place 
for a review of the Georgia work since the union in 
1794. 

FoTty-five years before this conference, a single 
preacher had entered the wilderness to preach, for the 
first time, the doctrines known as Methodist, and to do 
but little. Forty-four years before this, two most devoted 
men had volunteered as missionaries, and had come to 
Georgia to do much. At that time Georgia was com- 
paratively a wilderness. The nominal boundary of the 
white settlements was the Oconee River. All beyond 



260 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



this to the Mississippi, known then as Georgia, was an 
nnbroken forest, save the few fields tilled by nntamed 
savages. Four years after the missionaries came, the 
date of the first reported census, there were 82,548 in- 
habitants, and when Humphries and Major began their 
woi'k there were, as we have said, not 500 professed 
Christians in the State. In a previous chapter we have 
given, as well as Ave were able, a full account of the 
then condition of things. Against obstacles almost in- 
sui-mountable, hardships, persecutions, slanders, the 
preachers had gone on. For five years they had met 
with wonderful success, then came a period of decline, 
and for five years the decline had been constant and 
rapid. Then, under Stith Mead and his successors, there 
had been a glorious harvest time ; and then for nearly 
thirteen dreary years decline again, and now for seven 
years such wonderful prosperity as the sanguine had 
not hoped to see. Now^ a laborer like Major fell at his 
post; now one like Ivy, Ellis, and Connor, worn down 
wuth heav}^ toils, left the field only to die ; now, as with 
Blanton, Handle, Hull, and Andrew, necessit}^ drove to 
location, but at last there was a strong conference, com- 
posed almost entirely of the sons of the Church. Then 
the Methodists were humble, obscure, and poor ; now 
the judge on his bench, the Congressman, and the Assem- 
blyman were not ashamed to be known as Methodists. 
Then of the few preachers a small number only were 
men of even moderate education ; now the Geoi'gia Con- 
ference presented such an array as Pierce, Andrew, 
Howard, Olin, Samford, Few and Pope, and others, who 
could have filled any pulpit in America. The State, 
too, had extended her boundaries, until the Chattahoo- 
chee was on her western side, and her population had 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



261 



increased to a half million. Then a few log-honses 
constituted the largest city away from the coast ; now 
there were a score of elegant towns with fine schools, 
good churches, and beautiful homes, in the interior. 
Then infidelity ruled in polite circles; now there was 
but little known or heard of it. The new lands of the 
western counties were not being slowly peopled by hardy 
pioneers, but were rapidly settled by families of cultiva- 
tion and refinement. Portions of the State there were 
still which presented the asjx^ct of the w^hole country 
forty years before. The district of Josiah Evans was as 
large as that of Richard Ivy, and the preachers of the 
Tallahassee District had to face greater dangers and 
endure as great privations as their fathers in the first 
years. Only one part of Georgia was unoccupied by the 
whites, but the Methodist preachers were then among 
the Indians. Nothing had daunted these heralds of good 
tidings ; the mountains, the swamps, the wiregrass, the 
everglades, had all alike been visited by them. The 
wigwam of the Cherokee, the Creeks, and the Seminole 
had heard the song of the daring itinerants. 

We have spc)ken of the labors of the Baptist Church, 
and a history of Methodism as a great Christian agency 
ought to recognize gladly the labors of these good men 
in the same work. Their first association was formed in 
1784, and side by side with the Methodists, not always, 
it is ti'ue, on the best of terms with them, had they 
worked on. The Virginians who came to Georgia 
were, many of them. Baptists, and when Silas Mercer, 
Abraham Marshall, and their sons labored, great success 
followed them. 

It could not be expected that Christians agreeing so 
well together should be long at war, or disagreeing in so 



262 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



many things should never come into collision, hut gen- 
erally there was social brotherhood if there was public 
battle. 

The Presbyterians came with the first into the State, 
and had churches in some important points, but alas ! 
for the progress of this excellent body, an iron rule 
required that every minister should have a classical 
and theological education, and the times ofi^ered neither 
opportunity to secure the training, nor support for the 
learned man. So the school-room appropriated what 
the harvest field demanded. 

As to the Protestant Episcopal Church, the first Cliurch 
in the colony, save in the two cities of Savannah, Au- 
gusta, and perhaps Macon, there was neither church 
buildings nor communicants. The Catliolics were not 
allowed religious liberty in Georgia till after the revo- 
lution, and there were now only a very few Catholic 
churches in the State. 

The Methodist Protestant Ciiurch had been organ- 
ized, and some of the ablest of the local preachers had 
gone into the movement, and many good laymen, but 
the disaffection had been by no means considerable. 

Although the financial interest was the least prosper- 
ous one, yet the preachers were receiving a better sup- 
port, and were not absolutely compelled to leave the 
work as soon as they had families around them, but the 
o])ligation to support the ministry, and to serve God 
with money, were not as yet recognized. 

The church buildings were all of them inferior. In 
the country they were generally of logs, perhaps a few 
were framed ; in the towns, barn-like and uncomfort- 
able. There was not a brick church in Georgia. There 
were only a few parsonages — one in Savannah, Augusta, 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1805. 



263 



and Milleclgeville, and perhaps one in Macon. T]ie 
circuits were still \evy large, and great toil was de- 
manded to fill the appointments. 

This, then, is a view of the Church and State as we 
are able to give it. There was in Georgia and Florida, 
at the last conference held in Colnmbia in which they 
were represented, 20,585 white members. 

At this conference Bishop Soiile presided. The 
appointments were made both for the South Carolina 
and Georgia Conferences, and they were thencefor- 
ward separate bodies. For over forty years their inter- 
ests had been identical, but with the growth of the 
conference, and the increase in the number of preach- 
ers, they had become practically separate. The preach- 
ers in the Georgia territory rarely crossed the liue, and 
vice versa. The general conference of 1828 had given 
permission to the South Carolina Conference to divide 
at such time and in such way as it saw fit, and at this 
conference the work was done. Never two conferences 
were made from one with less difficulty, and with less of 
feeling, save the feeling of regret, which all yoke-fellows 
feel at separating, to meet no more as a community. 

The Georgia work had in it five districts and the 
South Carolina five. There were 40,335 white mem- 
bers ; 20,585 are in Georgia, the rest in South Carolina. 
Sa^e a portion of the Cherokee country, the Georgia 
Conference covered with its five districts all of Georgia, 
and all the settled parts of Florida. The territory was 
large, much of it new, and all of it promising. Seventy- 
five preachers received appointments. There were four 
stations, Augusta, Savannah, Macon, and Columbus; six 
half stations ; five missions ; the rest of the work was 
laid out in large circuits. 



264: 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



The districts remain niichaiiged from last year, save 
tliat Andrew Hammill was released from the chai-ge 
of Columbus, and that his district was much enlarged 
b}^ new territory, extending from Carrollton on the 
north to Randolph on the south, and from the Flint to 
the Chattahoochee. 

The whole w^ork was well supplied with efficient 
pi'eachers. We may well doubt whether at any time 
the average of pulpit excellence was greater than in 
the conference at this period. Of all the preachers who 
i-eceived appointments at that conference only four re- 
main to this day (1877) : Lovick Pierce, James Dun- 
woody, Jno. W. Talley, Jesse Boring. Of these, one 
only is reported as effective — Lovick Pierce. There are 
superannuated James Diinw^oody and Jno. W. Talley, 
Jesse Boring. Of all the rest, not one remains in the 
conference, and but few are living. Most of them, full 
of years and honors, have gone to the rest of the labor- 
ers beyond. 

Jno. W. Talley, at this conference, was sent from 
Columbia to the Pensacola Mission, the most remote of 
the western appointments. A ride from Columbia 
across the entire State of Georgia and Florida to the 
gulf was before him, and all the comfort lie received 
was to be told that it was \Yell to bear the yoke in his 
youth. Jesse Boring on the Chattahoochee Mission, 
Talley on the Pensacola, Isaac Boring at Tallahassee, 
showed the training to w^iich the young preachers were 
subjected. It was Spartan enough, but it made them 
heroes in a day when heroism was demanded for the 
work. 

There was a large part of the country now quite 
populous and wealthy which lay on the Flint, east of 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1T85-1S65. 



265 



Colnnibus, in which is now Talbot, Taylor, and Macon 
Counties. Two missionaries were sent to this section, 
which was called the Flint River Mission. One of 
tliese was the Hon. II. AV. Hilliai'd, who began his 
career as a Methodist preacher and who was afterward a 
raeiTiber of Congress and a minister to European courts. 
Some success attended the labors of the preachers, and 
339 were formed into classes. It is probable that the 
lirst Methodist preaching in Talbotton was done this 
year by the missionary on the Flint River Mission. 

Tlie Florida work continued very prosperous. Tal- 
lahassee and Magnolia were made a station with 103 
niembers. Although as yet there were no Indian dis- 
turbances, the privations of the preachers were very 
great. Jno. F. Weathersby, who travelled the eastern 
part of the State in 1829, says the fare in most of the 
homes at which he stopped was liominy and T^ouhon 
tea — neither bread nor meat. A pole cabin, with dii*t 
floor, was his resting-jDlace, and a ride of twenty-five 
miles through an untracked wild, needful to reach a 
congregation of half a dozen hearers, his daily work. 

John W. Talley, we have seen, was sent to the Pensa- 
cola Mission this year. Pensacola had been the most 
important town in Florida during the time the Span- 
iards held possession of the country. There were very 
large trading houses, Scotch and Englisli, which did 
large business with the Indians of the Creek j^ation in 
Alabama. Chai-les Hardy had been sent to Pensacola 
as early as 1827. He had made arrangements to build a 
church, but the yellow fever, of which he had an attack, 
ha-d driven him away. The next year Isaac Boring- 
was sent from the Keewee Circuit in South CaroUna to 

this station. In 1831 Ji^o. W. TallcA^, from Columbia, 
12 



266 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



was sent to it. The young city had given great promise 
of growth, and had drawn a large population soon after 
Florida was purchased, but it was not long before the 
growth of Mobile, and the frequent visits of the yellow 
fever, caused as rapid a decline as there had been quick 
growth. We are permitted to get an insight into the 
difficulties the missionaries met with in reaching this 
remote point, since we have the personal recollections 
of the Rev. Jno. W. Talley. 

lie had been for two years in the mountain country 
of North Carolina, and at the division of the conference 
and tlie formation of the Georgia he was appointed to 
Pensacola. The Bishop sent for all the young mission- 
aries, and encouraged them as best he could, and young 
Talley made ready for his long journey, as Hardy and 
Boring had done before him. 

He left Columbia on horseback, spent a few days in 
Green County, and rode through the State to Columbus, 
Here he purchased a sulky, but his liorse taking friglit 
at a thunder-storm, ran away, broke his sulky to pieces, 
and he narrowly escaped death, though he was only badly 
bruised. He then refitted, and turned his face to the 
South. He was now in the Indian nation. He reached 
the next day a white settlement in Henry County, Ala- 
bama. Making his w^ay through the flat pine-woods of 
Eastern and Southern Alabama, he pressed on. Houses 
were few, and accommodations were poor indeed. At 
a little log-cabin, the home of a hunter, he was sheltered 
for the night, and fed upon musty corn-bread, the meal 
beaten in a mortar, and the tough lungs of a deer fried 
in rancid bacon grease, and corn-coffee sweetened with 
syrup. On such fare, hungry as he was, the niissionaiy 
could not break his long fast, and it was fifteen im'les to 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



267 



the next house. He, however, found, as he says, an 
oasis in the desert, in a widow's neat cottage and well- 
supplied table. Thence he pushed through the rain to 
the house of the first Methodist he had seen since he 
left Columbus. After reaching the Florida sea-coast, 
and crossing the Escambia Bay, he found himself still 
ten miles from Pensacola, and ^vith no choice but to 
walk. He began bravely enough, but soon his limbs 
gave out. He, however, reached the city the next day. 
The colored barber was a Methodist, and he found him 
first, and then sought out his host. His host w^as an 
Englishman, w^ho had had a most adventurous and 
varied experience in life. When he came in, and the 
family greeted him, they asked him whether he had 
breakfast. When he told them no, the reluctantly-told 
story came from the good wife that there was nothing 
to eat in the house, and no money to buy anything w^ith. 
The young preacher handed the good man a five-dollar 
note, and soon their w^ants were met. In this little 
church there were some families of position and of refine- 
ment. In the Sunday-school, then a bright young girl, 
was Miss Octavia Walton, afterwards Mrs. Le Yert, 
whose mother was a n:iember of the church there. 

We have been thus minute in giving this reminiscence 
because we are anxious to bring out the difficulties 
under which the early preachers labored, that from this 
history we may imbibe something of that heroic spirit 
v>diich enabled them in God's strength to gain such 
conquests. There w^as surely nothing of that puerility, 
that effeminacy, so distasteful to the apostle of work, in 
such a life as these first preachers led. Is such a spirit 
needless now ? 

The Methodist missionary was the only preacher in 



268 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



these wilds. We have not thought the pages of a his- 
tory should be encumbered with many reflections. We 
have designed to tell the story, and let it teach its own 
lessons ; but we may be pardoned if we express a feel- 
ing of grateful satisfaction as we think of a conference 
flnding men willing to do the work demanded for these 
most remote and destitute people, these very poor, and 
preaching the Gospel unto them. The splendid success 
of the efforts of the Methodist pi*eachers has been less a 
success won than a reward given. They sowed ; we 
have reaped ; but in the world beyond, the sower who 
received no earthly reward may well rejoice with the 
reaper who hath gathered fruit unto life eternal, that 
" both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice 
together." 



m GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



269 



CHAPTER IX. 

First Georgia Conference — John McYean — Legacy of Thomas 
Grant — Sunday-School Cause — George Foster Pierce — A. H. 
Mitchell — Caleb W. Key — Jno. B. Barton" — Jno. C. Simmons 
— Conference 18o2 — Bishop Hedding — Delegates to the Gen- 
eral Conference — Peyton P. Smith — Myles Gheen — GenefvAL 
Conference of 1832 — James O. Andrew made Bishop — Robert 
Emory — Death of James Bellah — Wm. Choice — Conference 
of 1833— Death of Thomas Darley — Methodism in South-west 
Georgia — Gold Discoveries and Methodism in the Mines — 
Pay of the Preachers — Conference of 1831 — Joshua Knowles 
— First Collection for Superannuated Preachers — Cherokee 
District — Irwin — Hawkinsville — The Frontier Districts of 
the South — W. Graham— E. W. Reynolds — George H. Round 
— George W. Lane — Alex. Speer — Sandersville — Jno. W. 
Knight — Same. Anthony. 

The first Georgia Conference met in Macon, Jan. 5, 
1831. 

The Bishop was not present^ and Lewis Myers opened 
the conference. There were present at the first sitting 
only 33 preachers. Isaac Smith, who had been at the 
first asseml^lage of Methodist preachers in Georgia over 
40 years before, opened the exercises with prayer. 
John Howard was the first secretary. There was 
preaching each day at 11 a.m., 3 p.m., and at night. 

During this conference w^e find, by incidental allu- 
sions in the minutes, some facts of interest. One was, 
that the unhappy John McYean, who, after having oc- 
cupied so high a place in the Chnrch in an early day, 
and who had fallen from his. high estate through wine, 
the mocker, was at last dead, and had left his little 



270 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



property to the conference. McVeau seems to have 
been one of those men who^ sincerely pious, are yet 
sadly weak, and ever and anon, in the course of his life 
and ministry, he would drink to excess ; then there was 
deep remorse, and an entire reform, and then, alas! 
there was another fall. lie had lost his place among 
his brethren as a preacher, but when the lonely, weak 
old man came to die, he left his little all to his old yoke- 
fellows. Sanuiel Bradburn and Henry M. KoUock had 
the same sad experience, with a happier result. Let 
him that thinketh he standetli take heed lest he fall.^' 

The fund of Special Relief, which was founded by 
Bishop Asbury in 1806, was the only vested fund of 
the conference, and to it the old preaclier^s bequest was 
added. 

There was another legacy reported to the conference, 
which at some time before had been left by Thomas 
Grant, whom we have inentioned as having built the 
first Methodist church in the State. $1,500 in cash 
and quite a body of land was the moiety of the con- 
ference. 

The ladies in Savaniiah, Columbus, and Macon had 
wwking societies, which sent up funds for the use of 
the conference. 

During the conference Brother Hearn, the agent of 
the La Grange College, in Alabama, but in the Tennes- 
see Conference, was present, and endeavored to secure 
the cooperation of the body in building up that institu- 
tion, and was given permission to do all he could in col- 
lecting funds. 

James O. Andrew introduced certain resolutions 
aduiitting and deploring the w^ant of interest in the 
Sunday-school cause, and Dr. L. Pierce addressed the 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



271 



conference on the subject of the Georgia Educational 
Society, which was a society for the education of young 
preachers. 

The missionary interest demanded, as the conference 
thought, a special agent, and a resolution was passed 
suggesting such an appointment. Of the members 
present the first day only one is living now, Dr. Lovick 
Pierce. 

Eleven young men were admitted on trial. One of 
tliese was Geo. Foster Pierce, the oldest son of Dr. 
Lovick Pierce ; another was Archelaus H. Mitchell, now 
a presiding elder in Alabama. These are the only 
two of the class who are now alive and in the min- 
istry. 

It would be offensive to propriety, and as offensive 
to most of the living men who pass under our review, 
to do more than to recognize their labors ; leaving all 
careful sketches of theii* lives, and especially all eulo- 
gium, to an after-time. We shall endeavor to restrain 
an eager pen and pursue this course. Suffice it, then, to 
say that Geo. F. Pierce, just from college, in his twenty- 
first year was admitted at this Macon Conference into 
the travelling connection, and began his life work as 
junior preacher in the Alcovi Circuit with Jeremiah 
Freeman, and that Archelaus H. Mitchell was sent on 
the La Grange Circuit with Isaac Boring. Young 
Pierce entered with all heartiness into his work, and 
was as much at home and as useful as the second man 
on a circuit as he has been since that time in more 
exalted positions. The blue broadcloth suit, so offensive 
to Father Collingsworth, was laid aside for plainer and 
more Metliodistic apparel. His presiding elder or- 
dered him to various points, and to camp-meetings; and 



272 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



perhaps the Bishop has known no year since the one he 
travelled as Jeremiah Freeman's junior, more richly 
filled than this was with pleasant memories. 

Isaac Boring and his young colleague had a year of 
wonderful prosperity. There were nearly 800 added to 
the Church, and although the Harris Circuit was formed 
from the La Grange, and 614 members went with 
it, there was still a larger number of members in the 
La Grange Circuit than before they began their labors. 

On the Cedar Creek Circuit, Thomas Maybry was 
preacher in charge. One was left to be supplied, and 
Caleb W. Key was selected. He had for some years 
been a useful local preacher, and as class-leader in La 
Grange, a sub-pastor. Pie resolved to give up all and 
enter the work, and did so. He was employed on this 
large circuit, and became so discouraged that he re- 
solved to return to his home. On his way home, he spent 
a night with Myles Green, a most excellent man, and 
he induced him to return to his work. His colleao;ue 
and himself conducted a protracted meeting at Hills- 
boro, then an unusual thing on the circuits, though more 
common on the stations. The meeting at Hillsboro 
was very profitable, and some sixty or seventy persons 
Avere added to the Church. The chan<>:es in tlie coun- 
try has'e made great changes in the Church, and where 
there was once floiii'ishing churches in those parts of 
Jones and Jasper, thei-e is found scarce a trace. 

The new country has depleted the old. In this meet- 
ing, R. A. T. Ridley, a young North Carolinian, of 
good education, and of fine family position, was con- 
verted. His parents were Presbyterians, and there was 
not a Methodist in his family. He, howevei', joined the 
Church, and became very zealous. In a year or two 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



273 



afterward he went to Charleston, to attend medical lec- 
tures, and here he formed a friendship for Dr. White- 
ford Smith, tlien a young preacher. Dr. Smith made 
him a class-leader. He thus began an active Christian 
life, which continued till his death. He removed to La 
Grange. He was much trusted by the people of his 
county, was their representative and senator, was 
active, public-spirited and liberal. Blessed w^ith large 
wealth, he was liberal in the disposal of it, and though 
a physician with a large practice, he did not ask exemp- 
tion from the offices of the Church, but was a most 
efficient steward and trustee as long as he lived. He 
was very much beloved and honored, and was a most 
useful man. He died after a short illness, while yet in 
the vigor of his manhood. 

The more careful attention given to Church records 
may account for an apparent decrease in the number of 
members. There was reported a decrease of near 700 
during the year. 

John B. Barton was appointed missionary to Africa. 
He was the first native Geoi-gian who had ever been 
sent on a foreign mission. He was born in Savannah, 
and had spent one year among the negroes in Georgia. 
After the Colonization Society had begun its work 
and established a colony in Liberia, the hope was 
entertained that not only might the colonists be 
blessed by a Christian ministry, but that all Africa 
might be Christianized through the new republic; 
and missionaries, black and white, were sent out. 
Barton volunteered for the work, and w^ent to Africa. 
Lie established a mission station some distance from 
the coast, and after working a year, he returned to 
Charleston, married a Miss Gilbert, and returned to 



274 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



Africa. Here his health gave way and in a short time 
he died. 

Some of the districts were supplied with new presi- 
dents. John Howard, who had removed from Greens- 
boro' to Macon, was sent upon the Milledgeville District. 
This was his lirst district, but he was admirablv fitted 
for this office, as for every one to which he had been 
called. 

Wm. J. Parks was placed on a district this year, and 
travelled the Athens, not far from his home. This, too, was 
the first time he had been called to the presiding elder- 
ship, and if ever man was placed in his true position in 
the Cliuj'ch, it was when Wm. J. Parks was made pre- 
siding elder. Here he evinced that ability for the diffi- 
cult work of presiding elder which made him so of ten 
an incumbent of the office. While the districts were 
not so large as they had once been, every year brought 
new difficulties in the way of filling the office. There 
were more appointments to fill, and they demanded a 
liigher order of men ; there were more mari'ied preachers 
to provide for, and as yet there were no parsonages in 
the interior, and the presiding elder was compelled, as 
far as possible, to consult the convenience of those who 
liad settled homes. The salaries were so small, and so 
uncertain, that the presiding elder knew that oftentimes 
an appointuient must needs be afflictive to him who 
received it. It was now no longer as it had been in 
Asbury's day, that the Bishop was alone resj)onsible ; the 
presiding elder was held to strict account by the preach- 
er and the people for the appointment. 

Sometimes a preacher was sent a long way from his 
home to a poor circuit ; thus James Dun woody, who was 
living in Houston County, was sent on the Liberty Cir- 



IX GEOEGIA AKD FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



275 



cuit^ over one hundred miles from home. This circuit 
inchided Tatnall, Liberty, and parts of Montgomery, 
Bryan, Emanuel, and Mcintosh Counties, and was eighty 
miles long. At his first quarterly meeting he received 
four dollars. Three months' labor and four dollars com- 
pensation. He started home, and after spending a few 
days, left with his famih^ §3.75 to supjDort them for 
three months more, and started for his work with 
twenty-five cents in his pocket. He spent this in ferri- 
age, and as he had no money to pay for lodging he 
camj)ed out with a traveller, but went witliout either 
supper or breakfast. The next day he reached his Sab- 
bath appointment and preached, and at a hospitable 
house partook, after the sermon, of the first food he had 
eaten for tw^enty-five hours, Such was my extreme 
poverty this year," he says, " that I had to appear in the 
pulpit in tattered garments, patched till they would 
bear patching no more," and yet this circuit was one of 
the best in the Oconee District. 

John C. Simmons, who entered the conference this 
year, Avas sent to the San Augustine and Nassau Mis- 
sion, on the southeastern frontier of the conference. He 
remained in the work for nearly forty years. He was a 
man of fine person, good preaching gifts, very decided, 
and very zealous. He was on all kinds of work. He 
was a presiding elder, circuit preacher, and on stations. 
He always did his work well. He was on the Griftin 
District in 1867, when he was stricken with a death- 
stroke of apoplexy. He had been a useful and laborious 
preacher for thirtj'-six years. 

John C. Sinnnons was a man of no ordinary mind. He 
had strong common sense, and, for those days, was a 
man of good culture. He preached with much force 



276 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



and unctioi]. Firm in liis coiivictioiis, he had the appear- 
ance of steriniess^ bat he was a man of warm and gentle 
heart. He went where he was sent, and never deviated 
from his work. A vigorous man, he was able to do 
much ; and zealous in the work, he labored untiriugly. 
From the everglades of Florida to the mountains of 
Georgia he travelled in the prosecution of his ministry, 
lie died in full vigoi-, and peacefully ended a useful 
life. 

The conference met in Augusta, on Thursday, the 5th 
of January, 1832. 

Elijah Hedding was in the chair. This was his first 
visit to Georgia, and his last. He came fj-om the Hol- 
ston Conference, tlirough the Indian nation, by way of 
Athens, to Augusta. He speaks of the newness of the 
countrv, and of the want of comfort in the homes ; but, 
as the country beyond Athens was not ten years settled 
in its oldest part, he found no fault with that, and ex- 
pressed himself as greatly pleased with the kindness he 
received. In Augusta he saw what was always. an un- 
pleasing sight to even Southern men, however strong 
their belief in the righteousness of slave- holding. He 
saw a slave auction, and naturally, if imprudently, said 
to a Isoi'therner bj^ his side : "Does not that make your 
Yankee blood boil ? " As this was the time when the 
abolition excitement was beginning, and when there 
was intense feeling on the subject, and when every effort 
Avas being made to excite an insurrection in the South, 
it was not a matter of wonder that his remark excited 
some displeasure, and that he was advised to be more 
pi'udent.^ 



* Heddiag's Life. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1?«5-1865. 



277 



The year gone by had been one of great prosperity, 
and over 4,000 wliite and colored members had been 
added to the Church. 

Martin P. Parks, as agent for Randolph Macon Col- 
lege, visited the conference and began those negotiations 
which resulted in the decision, at an after conference, 
to endow a professorship in that institution. 

A resolution was passed at this session suggesting to 
the General Conference a large increase in the number 
of bishops. 

The same question which has been before every Gen- 
eral Conference, and which, we have seen, was so stoutly 
discussed as early as 1804, whether the bishops should 
be few or miany, was thus passed upon, and the desire 
was for a large increase in the number of bishops; ^ it 
will be seen that the Georgia Conference then held 
ground which her representatives have long since aban- 
doned in the General Conference. There was then 
550,000 members in the Church in the United States, 
and there were only four effective bishops, Bishop Mc- 
Kendree being too feeble for work ; but, considering 
the fact that they had no district conferences to attend, 
and that the facilities for travel did not offer such oppor- 
tunities for them to meet special calls, there was less 
constant labor demanded of them than the M. E. Church 
South, with 700,000 members, now asks of her episcopal 
college. 

Eleven v/ere admitted on trial. Of these eleven 
young men, three remain to this day. 

The districts remained unchanged, and no new circuits 
were laid out. James O. Andrew was elected a dele- 



* See Conference Journal. 



278 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



gate to the General Conference wliicli was to meet in 
Philadelphia in Maj^, and as such a journey required 
nearly three months' absence from his work, G. F. 
Pierce was sent as his junior. John S. Ford returned 
to the work and was on the Gwimiett Circuit. There 
were in it 802 members, but they were either unable 
and unwilling to give the preacher a support; and after 
another trial on the Yellow River Circuit with like re- 
sult, he was forced to the local j-anks again. During 
the year there was evidently a great revival in the work, 
since the net increase was nearly 3,000. It must also 
be borne in mind that Alabama and Mississippi were 
receiving large accessions to population from Georgia 
annually. This increase is then evidence of great vital- 
ity, and the addition of 1,163 colored members, of 
greater attention to the colored people. A list of the 
leading preachers on the stations will manifest the fact 
that tlie Georgia cities were never better supplied than 
in 1832 : Augusta, J. O. Andrew and G. F. Pierce ; 
Athens, Lovick Pierce; Columbus, Ignatius A. Few; 
Milledgeville, Jesse Boring; Macon, Benjamin Pope. 

Here w^ere a body of men who would have com- 
manded attention and respect in any city of America ; of 
them all, save one, were Georgians, and were all of 
Methodist parentage. The Church in the State w^as 
now able to man her own battlements. 

Nor were the districts and circuits less ably manned. 
Samford, Arnold, Howard, Hodges, Parks, were such 
men as are rarely seen, and G. F, Pierce, Isaac Boring, 
Jesse Boring, Arclielaus H. Mitchell, Caleb W. Key, 
John C. Simmons, among the young men have shown 
by their after lives the character of the younger 
men. Jeremiah Freeman, whose health failed him the 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1805. 



279 



year before, was a devoted man. He was a man of 
decided courage. He attacked sin where he found it. 
Once he gave offence by this course to a passionate man 
who armed himself with a bhidgeon, and took his place 
in the pulpit to await the preacher. Freeman, though 
warned, quietly walked into the pulpit and taking him 
by the coat collar, quietly led him out. The man be- 
came convicted under his preaching and was afterward 
converted. 

The circuits are still much too large. The Cedar 
Ci-eek embraces a part of Jasper, tlie whole of Jones 
and Baldwin, and a part of Putnam. The Little River, 
parts of Greene, Oglethorpe, Warren, Columbia, and 
the w^hole of Taliaferro and Lincoln Counties, with 
twenty-five appointments, and requiring a ride of 300 
miles to get around it. The Washington, most of 
Washington, parts of Montgomery, Laurens, Jefferson, 
and all of EmanueL 

The Sparta, all of Hancock, a part of Greene, Bald- 
win, Washington. The appointments were for every 
day, and the preachers followed eacli other, reaching 
their appointments once every two weeks. Of course, 
protracted meetings and pastoral service were out of 
the question.^ 

At this conference Peyton Pierce Smith, the oldest 
son of Rev. John M. Smith, a local preacher, was 
admitted on trial. He was then only nineteen years 
old. He was sent, in the early part of his ministry, to 
the Florida work, and developing rapidly as an efficient 
preacher, was early made a presiding elder. Though 
his advantages in youth had been few, by diligence in 



* Letter from C. W. Key. 



280 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



study he overcame this deficlencj, and became a preacher 
of real power. In 1845, when the Florida Conference 
was formed, he remained in Florida and continued a 
leading man there for nearly twenty years, when he 
died. He was a travelling preacher for over tliirty 
years^ and preached 4,414 sermons, and travelled 103,623 
iiiiles. He had returned to Fulton County, Georgia, to 
be present at the preaching of his father's funeral ser- 
mon. The next Sabbath his own was preached — a con- 
gestive attack having ended his life after twenty-four 
hours sickness. ^ 

Myles Grreen, who was admitted at this conference, 
had been an itinerant as early as 1800, but had soon 
retired from the work. He removed to Georgia in 
1802 and settled in Baldwin County. The country was 
then just settled, the lands having been just purchased 
from the Indians, and the savages and wild beasts were 
still in their native woods. He began to preach as a 
local preacher, and did most effective work. He con- 
tinued in this relation for thirty years, and then re- 
entered the confej-enc^e in which he said he wished to 
die. He passed his fourscore years, and was nearing 
ninety years, havino; reached his eio-htv-fifth, when the 
summons came for him to depart. He gladly received 
the word, and when told that he must now go, said : 
" Glory to God," and passed beyond. He was much 
beloved, and was a most useful and valuable man. 

At this session the deleo-ates were elected to the Gen- 
eral Conference, which Avas to meet in May, in Phila- 
delphia. There were twelve delegates from Georgia: 
James O. Andrew, Samuel K. Hodges, Wm. Arnold, 



* Minutes, 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1855. 



281 



Andrew Hamniill, John Howard, Ignatius A. Few, Ben- 
jamin Pope, Elijah Sinclair, W, J. Parks, Allen Turner, 
Lovick Pierce, Thomas Samford. They left Georgia 
together, and I'ode to Philadelphia o]i horseback. The 
session was not an important one, and few questions 
came before it which were of deep intei'est. It was evi- 
dent before the beginning of the session that the episco- 
pacy must be strengthened, and two new^ Bishops were 
decided on. James O. Andrew and John Emory were 
elected on the lirst ballot. Andrew was the first 
Greorgian who had ever been elevated to that position, 
as his father had been the first Georgian who became a 
travelling preacher. He was eminently fitted for the 
oflice, but was most reluctant to accept it. He was 
willing to endure all the privations which it entailed, 
but shrank from the greatness of its demands. 

It was stated in the great debate of ISii that he was 
elected to the oftice not only because of his fitness for 
it, but because he held no slaves. That, but for this, 
some other Southerner would have been chosen. Tliis 
is possibly true, but he said he was not approached on 
the subject — made no pledges and would have made 
none. He was now about forty-two years old. From 
the time he had gone forth a timid bo}^ to the Salt- 
ketcher Circuit, his progress had been a steady one. 
He had richly cultivated his mind, his wonderful native 
powers had been greatly strengtliened, and he had now 
I'eached the zenith of his fame as a preacher. To the 
most cultured, to the plain and unlettered, to the poor 
iiegro, he was alike fitted, and by each of them greatly 
A'alued. It has been said by his old and partial friends 
that he never preached as well after he became a Bishop 
as before. This was no doubt true as a general state- 



282 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



ment. Befcn-e he became a Bishop he had nothing to 
do but to preach ; but now he had to plan, to appoint, 
and to direct. No man ever felc tlie weight of tliese 
demands to a greater degree. lie never spared liini- 
self, he nevej' spared his brethren when he felt that 
Christ demanded tlie sacrifice. Like Abraham lie would 
have borne his only son to the mount, if God had called 
for him. Yet while he sent men hither and thither 
with such apparent calmness, while he made his appoint- 
ments and adhered to his decision inflexibly, he never 
made an appointment which he knew would afflict, with- 
out enduring as much pain in giving it as the one felt 
who received it. The man that felt the Bishop, who so 
calmly read him out to a hard field, was pitiless, little 
knew that his nights had been sleepless and his eyes 
tearful ere his decision had been made. The writer 
of this history, who loved him as a father, was one night 
with hinj in Auonista : and he was cheerfullv tellinsr 
of some of his early trials, but he said, these were 
nothing to the trials of a Bishop. It has not been travel 
and absence from home, but when I have had to afflict 
good men and good churches, it has caused me a deeper 
pain than I have ever known from other cause. You say 
I ought to be used to that ; ah, my boy, I will never 
get used to it." 

From his election to the Episcopacy to the day of 
his death, his life was one of most incessant anxiety 
and toil. 

He was possessed of a most remarkable delicacy of 
feeling. The man who seemed to be as hard as iron 
was as soft and gentle as a woman. The man who in 
his unflinching courage would not resign his office, be- 
cause he felt a great principle was involved, sufl^ered 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



283 



the agony of a martyr in retaining it. The man wlio 
made appointments which inflicted the greatest pain on 
his best friends, and made them ap^Darently without re- 
luctance, and sternly held to them, groaned and wept 
in his chamber ere he decided upon them. He was a 
man of grandest unselfishness. Poor Asbury, sick and 
lonely if he did not murmur under his trials, and he did 
not, at least let others know how deep were his wounds ; 
but Andrew sternly suffered deeper pain, and no man 
knew how keenly he felt it. He was a man of the 
noblest magnanimity. He never spared himself. He 
never did intentional injustice to friend or foe. He was 
never cowardly in the presence of wealth and power; 
he was never harsh toward the lowly or the erriijg. 
For thirty-four years as a Bishop he w^orked on ; from 
the frozen lakes to the gulf, from the Chesapeake to 
the Rio Grande, he ti-avelled and preached, and pre- 
sided over conferences, and bore the care of the 
churches, with all the suffering it brought with it. 
Then in 1S66, ere a man had breathed the thought, he 
became convinced that he was no longer fitted to fill his 
place efificiently, and so affectionately, but firmly, he in- 
sisted that he should be retired. His brethren sorrow- 
fully granted his request, and thenceforward he labored 
as best he could. His limbs gave w^ay, and he could 
not stand ; he sat in his chair in the churches and talked 
to the children. He had gone to New Orleans on 
church w^ork ; he was on his way home Avheii he was 
taken with his last illness. He was in Mobile in the 
early part of 1870, at the house of his daughter, Octa- 
via, wife of the Rev. J. W". Rush, and in a few days he 
grandly and joyfully passed to the land of the living. 
From 1812 to 1870, for fifty-eight long years, he had 



284- 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



turned no hair's breadth aside from his line of duty, and 
there was no spot upon his fair shield. Dented it was, 
and battered, but no dart of foe had ever found it any- 
wliere save in his brave arm in the fore front of the 
battle. All Methodism owes a debt to James O. An- 
drew, all Southern Methodism an especial one ; but to 
Georgia Methodists he was dearer than to any other. 
His son, who bears his name, his son-in-law, the Rev. 
John W. Rush, liis grandson, the Rev. W. P. Lovett, his 
foster-son, the Rev. Alex. M. Wynn, have all followed 
him in the work of the ministry, each of them faithful 
workers; while his sons-in-law, Thos. M. Meriwether 
and the Rev. Robert W. Lovett, are doing work scarcely 
less effective as active laymen. Robert Emory was 
elected Bishop at the same General Conference. 

Though younger than Andrew he was not to be long 
in his office — and though his education had been much 
more advanced, he had i]ot nigh so great experience in 
those trials of the itinerancy, which a man needs to 
know to fit him to be a Bishop. 

He was a highly gifted man, and one of very broad 
culture. His tastes rather fitted him for the editorial 
chair, or the professor's lecture room, than for the 
work of the Episcopacy, which requires abilities which 
neither scholarship nor gifts of eloquence can supply. 
He was a man of very delicate health, and the labors 
of his office demanded much powei of endurance. He 
was, however, very popular, for he had been very use- 
ful, and although he had led the reformers of the 
Church when they seceded, he wrote most vigorously 
against them. He was killed by being thrown from his 
carriage, as he was on his way to Baltimore from his 
f arm, not many miles distant froui the city, after he had 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



285 



been a Bishop only a few years. The conference ad- 
jonrned, and Bishop iVndrew left Philadelphia in 
compain^ with McKendree, his venerable predecessor 
and still colleague in office. He went to McKendree 
and asked for counsel. ^' He was sitting," said Bishop 
Andrew, " on the deck of the steamer, leaning on his 
staff. Looking at me calmly, he said : ' 1 have but 
little to say, my dear James. I think little need be 
said, only this : Shrink from no responsibility. Re- 
member that he who shrinks from a responsibility 
which "p roperl y belongs to him, incurs the most fearful 
of responsibilities!'" 

The election of Bishop Andrew rendered it neces- 
sary that the charge of the Augusta Station should fall 
upon the shoulders of his young assistant, and so by 
the middle of his second year, George F. Pierce had 
all the burden of the largest city station in Georgia 
upon his shoulders. There are some men who always 
meet, and go beyond the demands made upon them by 
the occasion, and the young preacher was one of these. 
The Bishop-elect decided to settle his f amil}^ at Augusta, 
and although the people there gave him unsolicited 
assistance in securing a home, he became, he says, for 
the first time in his life involved in debt, and his faith- 
ful Amelia came to his aid by teaching a school. The 
allowance made for his support by tlie Georgia Confer- 
ence, to whom the question by law was referred, w^as 
$600 all told.^ 

The good work of a Bishop was certainly not a 
remunerative one. The Georgia Conference had now 
lost him as a member of the body ; but for many years 



* Leaves from an Itinerant's Diary, 508. 



286 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



lie made Ins home in her territoryj and for all his years 
he reo-arded Georo^ia as his mother. It was meet then 
that he should be brought back to Georgia for burial, 
and that he should sleep his last sleep in Oxford, the 
happ3^ home of his mature years. 
We return to the minutes. 

James Bellah, who has borne the brunt of many a 
hai'd campaigu, received at this conference his last 
appointment, lie was sent to the Yellow River Circuit. 
This included a large part of Xewton, all of Henry, 
Butts, Jasper, and one appointment in Monroe. There 
were twenty-eight appointments, and the preacher, by 
riding every day, could fill them in one month. James 
Bellah had nov\" worn himself down in the work, and after 
a short time on the circuit his health failed, and Mor- 
gan Bellah, his brother, succeeded him. This good man 
thus began a work which, in the midst of all difficulties, 
he has continued to prosecute. He received for his 
year's labor $160. How could any man of famih^ have 
lived on such a salary ? Out of it he was compelled to 
furnish a house for himself, a horse, pay his travelling 
expenses, and indeed provide for all his wants. Of 
course this would have been simply impossible ; and as 
it was but a fair sample of the salaries of most of the 
preachers, there can be no wonder that they had farms 
of their own, and that their good wives supported the 
family while they were absent for near a month at a 
time on their labor of love. If one was not able to 
provide for his family a home, and had no other 
resources than his own labor, he was forced to a location, 
and so there were a large number of gifted men in the 
local ranks who would have continued in the pastorate 
if they could have been even insufficiently supported. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1TS5-1865. 



2S7 



Wm. Choice, who was one of the class admitted on 
ti-ial, was from Hancock County, and was thirtv-two 
years old when he was admitted. He did hard woi'k 
for twenty-four years as a preacher on large circuits 
and wide districts. He died in peace in Florida in 
1855. He was sent in connection with Samuel 
Anthony, who was himself just admitted on the 
Ocmulgee Circuit. These up-country youths, young, 
inexperienced, and whose early advantages had been 
very few, were sent to a work which required a monthly 
ride of over 300 miles, through swamps and boundless 
pine forests, and among a poor, ignorant, and simple- 
hearted people. Methodism can truly say that she 
has always turned a ready ear to the cries of the poor, 
and such as she had, has she freely given. While other 
denominations have left the field without the laborer, 
while they were patiently toiling to make him skilful, 
our Church has taken him who had but little more 
knowledge than that best of all, a knowledge of J esus, 
and sent him forth to tell, from the depths of a rich ex- 
perience, how peace may be found. Mistakes in gram- 
mar and in science have seemed to her of but little con- 
cern in comparison with an entire ignorance of these 
fundamental Christian truths which the humblest be- 
liever knows as well as the wisest. The results of her 
history sustain the wisdom of this course. Wm. 
Choice and Samuel Anthony began their work ; and 
prayer and preaching and constant study made them 
workmen worthy of any place. There were a sufficient 
number of laborers now to occupy the whole field. 
The circuits and missions wei'e so large that they 
embraced all of Georgia and Florida, and not more 
than ninety men did all the work. From Pensacola to 



288 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



San Angustiiie ; from the gulf coast to Habersliam, the 
preachers were distributed, and although the work was 
hard and the salaries paid entirely insufficient, yet the 
preachers upheld the standard. Although Methodism 
in Georgia had passed its fortieth year, yet there were 
trials and dangers now equal to, and in many cases even 
beyond, those of the first preachers, for they at least had 
a healthy land to work in, while many of this generation 
must inhale the deadly malaria of the swamps of South- 
west Georgia and Florida. 

The coiif erence for 1833 was held at La Grange, Troup 
County, Januarj^ 2. 

La Gi'ange was now a sprighth^ and prosperous county 
town, not yet ten years old. It was on the western bor- 
der of the conference. It was noted then as now for its 
hospitality, and was the first place in the new purchase 
to entertain a conference. To reach it the pi'eachers 
had to travel on horseback and in gigs and salkies, as 
there were no public conveyances, bnt yet a goodly 
number of them were present on the first day. Sotne 
came from the southeastern border of Georgia and the 
wilds of Florida. A journey to Europe (^ould now be 
made in shorter time and with much more ease than 
many of them made the trip to La Grange. 

Bishop Andrew was present at this session, and pre- 
sided. John Howard was again the secretary. As 
Georgia had projected no college of her own, there was 
considerable strife on the part of the newly-established 
Randolph Macon and La Grange (Ala.) Colleges to 
secure her co-operation ; and William McMahon, agent 
of La Grange, and John Early, of Randolph Macon, 
Va., came to the conference to advocate the claims of 
their respective schools. The matter was referred to a 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1765-1865. 



289 



committee, of which S. Olin was chairman. The con- 
ference finally resolved to accept the proposition of the 
trustees of Randolph Macon. Dr. Few, wlio was anxious 
for a Georgia institution, was opposed to the resolution, 
and succeeded in preventing the appointment of an 
agent ; but, by vote of the conference, the agent ap- 
pointed by the college had full permission to prosecute 
his agency in Georgia. 

The trustees of the school at CuUoden, which was then 
a very flourishing country village, had proffered their 
institute to the conference under certain conditions. It 
was not accepted this year, but action was deferred till 
the next session, came up then in another shape, and 
finally resulted not in the acceptance of tlie CuUoden 
Scliool, but in the establishment of the Manual Labor 
School and of Emory College. 

At this conference nine preachers were admitted. 
Morgan Bellah, the brother of James, who had travelled 
the Yellow River Circuit, was also admitted. lie has, 
after thirty-five years' hard labor, been superannuated. 
These are all who remain of this class. 

Thomas Darley, after a life of great usefulness, had 
gone home. He died in Harris County, in 1832, having 
been only one year on the retired list. While the old 
soldier had laid off his armor and sought rest, George 
M. Davis, a young worker in Florida, had fallen sud- 
denly dead. The number of supei-annuated preachers 
was very large for such a conference as the Georgia then 
was. There were fifteen upon it. They vv^ere nearly all 
old men, who had worked a long time. Some of them 
had been local for many years, and had returned to the 
conference to die in it. Benj. Blanton, who had located 

in 1778 ; David Garnson and Samuel Annesly, who had 
13 



290 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



been active preachers in the first years of the century ; 
Lewis Myers, wlio had begun work in 1799, were on this 
list. No one was on it who was not worn out ; and then 
the Church did not recognize a mental defect as ground 
for this rehxtion. Tiiere had been great prosperity in 
the newer sections of the State. During the year 1831, 
when Isaac Boring and A. H. Mitchell were on the La 
Grange Circuit, then including Troup, Meriwether, 
and Harris Counties, the number added to the Church 
was quite 1,000 members, and now, though the circuit 
was divided, under the ministry of Norman and Wil- 
liams, there w^as an addition of over 200 members. The 
Columbus District alone had increased in two years over 
1,200 members. The Augusta District, which had been 
in existence for two years, was now under the presidency 
of Lovick Pierce. He had not been on a district since 
tlie time he left the Oconee in 1809. His district then 
extended from Athens to St. Mary's. It was now com- 
paratively a small and compact district in the heart of 
Georgia. Yet it occupied the territory now covered by 
nearly three districts. Wm. J. Parks, after one year on 
the Athens District, took the important Apalachee Cir- 
cuit, which had for years called for the best men of the 
Churcli. There were no men in those days who seemed 
specially fitted for only one kind of work. The circuit, 
the district, the station, were in turn filled by each of 
them. Thomas Samford, for so long time presiding 
elder, was on the Walton Circuit, which still included 
Newton in its boundaries, and in which there were 
nearly 1,000 members. 

A new work had been laid off some few y^ears before 
this in the southwestern part of the new purchase 
called the Lee mission, and now James Dnnwoody was 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



291 



sent to it. It included Lee, Sumter, and Marion 
Counties. Americus, the present beautiful county site 
of Sumter, was then a new town, and there was preach- 
ing in it at a private house a part of the time, and a 
part of the time in a log building, which served as a 
court-house. This was the second year of the existence 
of the mission, but there were 200 members reported in 
these counties. Dunwoody says that his success was 
but small in the work."^ The great value of the lands 
in that section were as yet unrecognized, and the large 
population and immense wealth that afterward belonged 
to it, were not as yet. There were two other missions 
in this section, the Etowah, and the Randolph. A new 
mission was also established in tlie upper part of the 
State, designed to provide the gold regions with the Gos- 
pel. It was left to be filled by a supply, and was called 
the Chestatee Mission. 

Immense excitement had arisen in Georgia resulting 
from the discovery of gold on some of the rivers, in the 
mountain country. This discovery had been made in 
1829 in Ilabersliam County, and afterwards on the Ches- 
tatee Eiver, a mile or more from Dahlonega. Imme- 
diately nmnbers flocked to these mines. There was the 
wild gambler, the wealthy speculator, the shrew^d land- 
trader, and, now and then, some sober settler who 
sought a liome in one of the charming valleys among 
the mountains, as well as the gold hunter who had come 
to mine. The missionary was sent with tliese adventu- 
rers. He reported at the next confoi-ence 130 members. 
During this year West Florida, and that part of the 
Chattahoochee Circuit which was in Alabama, was at- 



* Dunwoody's Life. 



292 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



taclied to the Alabama Conference, and ten members 
of the Georgia Confei-ence were transferred to Ala- 
bama. At the conference, of 1834, there was reported a 
decrease in the Georgia work, thongh there really was 
an increase. This is accounted for by the transfer just 
spoken of. 

Morgan Bellah, who had travelled the Yellow River 
Circuit the year befoi'e, w^as now sei>t upon the Grove. 
This circuit embraced all Franklin, Jackson, Madison, 
Hall, one-half of Gwinnett, and one appointment in 
Walton. There was paid liim this year by all these 
counties $250. It was in vain that the General Confer- 
ence required the circuits to pay quarterage of a hundred 
dollars to the preacher and the same to his wife, and 
an amount sufficient for each child with family ex- 
penses. There was no means of enforcing these pay- 
ments, and a large circuit was comforted by the fact 
that the preacher, if he did not return, had no claim on 
them, and the conference would still supply their pul- 
pit. There was as yet no financial system, no faithful 
preaching on the duty of men to use their money for 
Christ. Indeed, it is a sad truth that a large part of 
the preaching of the times was calculated to strengthen 
rather than to overthrow covetousness. The constant 
theme of many preachers was the extravagance of the 
people, and the duty of close economy and constant 
industry was enforced, but, alas, nothing was said about 
liberal giving ; but a better day was coming. Slowly, 
yet surely. 

The size of the circuits, the fact that the preacher 
came only once a month, and that there was so many 
members, led many to withhold even the small amount 
needed, since it was so small it could not be missed. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



293 



Then the preacher did not live among his people. Had 
he done so they wonld have willingly supplied his table, 
for they had abundance of provisions ; but tliey must 
pay all they paid in mone}^, and money was what they 
had the least of. The missionary and conference collec- 
tions from these sections was on a par with their contri- 
butions for the support of the ministry. Although 
these remarks with reference to finances are made here, 
they belong rather to this period than to this year, and 
to this class of circuits rather than to the Grove alone. 
It was, indeed, almost a universal thing. John Howard, 
Lovick Pierce, William J. Parks, John W. Glenn, James 
Bellah, Morgan Bellah, and many others, could not have 
continued in the work, but for their own private re- 
sources. The salaries of Morgan Bellah for several 
successive years were as follows : Decatur Circnit, in- 
cluding DeKalb, Fulton, Gwinnett, and Campbell, 
twenty-two appointments, $180. 

Newuan Circuit, with Coweta, half of Fayette, Camp- 
bell, and Heard Counties, twenty-two appointments, 
between $150 and $200. 

The preacher accidentally overheard the stewards on a 
circuit discussing the question of salarj^ One of them 
remarked and the other assented to it, that they ought 
to give him at least as much as an ordinary field-hand 
was worth, say $15 per month. This they did, and paid 
him for a year's wwk, about $180. 

Fayette and Campbell paid $136 for the support of a 
man and his w^ife and seven children. 

The Monroe (Walton Circuit) paid him for an entire 
year's work, $86. 

The Forsyth Circuit alone gave him a support and 
paid him $500. 



294 HISTORY OF METHODISM 

We have given these figures as a simple evidence of 
the devotion of the preaciiers and of the trials thej were 
forced to undergo. With the Baptist denomination it 
was even worse, for their preachers received literally 
nothing in the way of salary in many of these same 
sections, but then theii' preachers were not required to 
be from home twentj^-eight days in the month, and 
travel over Avide areas of country, not being able to be 
with their families more thau one-tenth of the time. 

The gracious and wonderful revival, which for almost 
two years had blessed the State, seems to have now to 
some extent declined. There was but little increase in 
any of the circuits and really but little decrease. In- 
deed, from 1823 to the present time, the Church has 
known no retrogression. For a short time there may 
liave been a halt in its onward progress, but it was only 
for a little wdiile ; with increased power it had then 
moved forward. There was an increase even this year 
of nearly 300 white members. Much of the work now 
was in securing the permanent results of the great re- 
vival of the ten years gone by. 

The conference for 1S34 met in Washington. Bishop 
Emory presided, and Bishop Andrew came with hinu 
It was the first and only time that this gifted and 
excellent man presided at a Georgia conference, lie 
was a man of broad cultivation, a writer of unusual 
elegance and power, lie had led the progressives, and 
contributed largely to their victory in 1820, when the 
question of whether presiding elders sliould be elected, 
was settled affirmativel3\ When, however, the malcon- 
tents left the Church to found the Methodist Protestant, 
Euiory was the strongest defender of Episcopal Metho- 
dism, and in his defence of the fathers and his History 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



295 



of the Discipline, he did work for the Church of lasting 
value. He had been elevated to this high office of 
Bishop at the same time at which Bishop Andrew was 
elected, and of his early and sudden deatli we have 
already told. 

At this conference the great question discussed con- 
cerned the educational interests of the Church. 

Olin, now the President of Randolph Macon, was 
present in the interest of that institution, and soliciting 
an agent and an endowment. Few, who was a foeman 
worthy of his steel, was in favor of a Georgia Institution ; 
and they crossed swords. It was finally, however, de- 
cided to give Randolph Macon an agent, and in consider- 
ation of seven free scholarships, to endow a professorship 
with $10,000. Elijah Sinclair was made the agent. The 
full endowment was never secured. We have noted 
the offer of the CuUoden School to the conference, and 
the conference action on the subject. It came up again 
at this session in a proposition to establish a manual 
labor school at Culloden. The school was decided upon 
but not the place, and John Howard was appointed 
agent. Of the after history of this school our readers 
are referred to the succeeding chapter on " Education in 
the Georgia Conference." 

At this conference sixteen were admitted on trial, 
of whom only two remain, both of them effective. 
Joshua Knowles was admitted at that time, and after 
remaining in the Methodist Episcopal Church for many 
years as a travelling and local preacher, he united with 
the Protestant Episcopal Church, in which communion 
he is now a Presbyter. At our request he has given us 
the following account of his introduction into the Metho- 
dist ministry, and the first conference which he travelled. 



296 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



We can but regret that we have l)een unable to secure 
from others accounts so full and satisfactory as Mr. 
Knowles has furnished us, but no urgency of entreaty 
has been sufficient to induce the actors in the scenes 
through whicli we ai-e passing to tell the story of their 
early ministry, and our pages suffer from this neglect. 

The Eaely Ministot of the Rev. J. Knowles. 

In 1833, whilst a resident of Athens, Ga., and under 
the faithful and loving pastorate of the Rev. B. Pope, 
at tlie fourth quarterly meeting conference for that 
year, I was licensed to preach by the Rev. William 
Arnold, of saintly memory, and recommended to the 
succeeding annual conference as a candidate for inem- 
bership in that body. Its session was held in Washing- 
ton, which I was privileged to attend. It was pre- 
sided over by the accomplished Emory,"^ and was a me- 
morable occasion, as well on account of the distinguish- 
ed clergymen present, as the important measures pre- 
sented for its deliberations and action. Though many 
years have passed away, I have a distinct recollection of 
both. There were present, and in their prime, the Revs. 
Lovick Pierce, Andrew Hammill, Ignatius Few, Sam'l 
Capers, William Arnold, Lewis Myers, John Howard, S. 
K. Hodges, Stephen Olin, Thos. Samford, Gr. B. Chap- 
pell, Elijah Sinclair, Benj. Pope, John Collingsworth, 
Jeremiah Norman, and other great leaders in Isi'ael. I 
well remember the masterly debate which ;arose on the 
educational question and the ponderous blows given on 
either side of the Emory College proposition ; and how, 
finally, Olin's resistless logic and eloquence carried the 



* I do not think Bishop Andrew was present. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



297 



day. But a single one of those great and good men re- 
main to bless by precept and example the Church. 

My first appointment was to Liberty Circuit, as junior 
preacher. The Rev. Andrew Hammill being my pre- 
siding elder, and Rev. Jas. T. Johnson, preacher in 
charge. This was a four weeks' circuit and no pent up 
parish. It comprised the w^liole of Liberty and Tat- 
iiall Counties, with parts of Telfair, Montgomery, Mc- 
intosh and Bryan. It abounded with rivers and creeks 
which in winter overflowed their banks but never pre- 
vented the punctual fulfillment of my appointments. 
Sometimes these w^ere swam on the back of my faithful 
" Darby," at other times crossed in a dug-out. AVomen 
and children would walk for miles with shoes and stock- 
ings in hands in very wet weather, putting them on be- 
fore arriving at church. Having lived mostly in the 
cities, tlie habits of my parish in the wire-grass region 
were rather novel to me. The whole family was often 
quartered in one room, but a more kind and courteous 
people I never saw. Some of my congregations were 
made up of the m^ost wealthy and cultivated people in 
tlie State. My work included twenty-eight appoiut- 
meu-ts ; so that I had but little time or opportunity for 
pastoral visiting and rest. My health, not very robust 
in early life, by horseback exercise, eating sugar-cane 
and sleeping in well- ventilated houses, lighted and 
warmed with pine-knots, astonishingly improved under 
my arduous labors. 

During tlie year we had some very pleasant meetings 
and accessions to the Church, and I went to confei*euce 
at its close, which met in Savannah, with a thankful 
and hopeful spirit. 

In 1835 I was appointed preacher in charo;e of Bui- 



298 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



lock Circuit. This comprised the whole of Bullock 
County, and parts of Bryan and Emanuel Counties. 
My recording steward and most efficient co-laborer on 
this work, was Mr. Eli Kennedy, who, by a pleasant co- 
incidence, I found to be the brotlierof Rev. W. M. Ken- 
nedy, the Presiding Elder of Cohimbia District, S. C, at 
the time 1 joined the Methodist Church in that place, 
and from whom I bore a letter of introduction to the 
Rev. Thomas Stanley (whom he married) when I came 
to Athens, Ga. Here I also found a worthy and effi- 
cient adviser and co-laborer in the sainted Mrs. Lydia 
Anciaux, the accomplished and venerable mother-in- 
law of the Hon, J. M. Berrien. Her house was truly 
the preacher's home. Though threescore and more she 
was active as a Sunday-school teacher, and in minister- 
ing to the poor and afflicted in her neighborhood. 

My health during the year was so impaired, that my 
presiding elder, the Rev. Dr. Pierce, kindly gave me a 
furlough for a few months during which I made a visit 
North. At the next conference I was ordained a deacon. 
My next appointment was to Tallahassee ; I arrived there 
the last Saturday of Dec, 1835, preached on Sunday, 
and married my first couple on Sunday night. I was 
very cordially received by the people. The Rev. John 
L. Jerry was my presiding elder. The Seminole war 
had just opened, and his districts comprised the whole 
Indian territory. He was a man of courage and zeal, 
and neither tomahawk nor scalping-knives drove him 
from his work. 

As for myself , though living in the midst of frequent 
alarms I continued at my post, as I was the only resi- 
dent clergyman in the city that year ; and as there were 
many sick persons belonging to the different churches 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



299 



and congregations, including many soldiers, my duties 
were quite arduous. And yet the year passed away pleas- 
antly, and there were some accessions to the Church. 

Mr. Chandler, the talented editor of the Florida In- 
telligencer^ having died, the paper was temporarily sus- 
pended. At the urgent solicitation of influential citizens, 
I was induced to purchase the Intelligencer oflice, and 
publish a family newspaper in Tallahassee, under the 
name of the Ilorida Watchman. This led to my location. 
I resided in Florida until 18M, laboring as a local min- 
ister and journalist, for Church and State. In 1844, 1 
rejoined the Georgia Conference, which met at Colum- 
bus, and was ordained an elder by Bishop Soule, and 
sent to Darien station. The following- year to Milledge- 
Tille, where I married Miss Mary Frances Barnett, 
daughter of the Hon. N. C. Barnett. During the suc- 
ceeding years of my itinerant life, I labored in Savan- 
nah, on Clinton and Cassville Circuits, and two years in 
Rome, where I was bereft of my beloved and sainted 
companion, and where I terminated my labors as a 
member of the Georgia Conference, and served the 
Church and State, to the best of my ability, as a local 
preacher and editor, at Rome, Milledgeville, and Macon. 
Whilst my life has been made up of versatile labors 
and vicissitudes, I have always endeavored to keep in 
view my high calling of God in Christ Jesus, and my para- 
mount obligations to him and to the Church. Anxious 
to retain a pastoral relation, but averse to an itinerant 
life, in 1866 I changed my ecclesiastical relations with- 
out, however, any modiflcation of my religious princi- 
ples, or abatement of love tovv^ards those with whom I 
had been so long associated, and whom I feel it still a priv- 
ilege to call my brethren^ at all times and all places. 



300 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



So ends Brother Kiiowles' account of his early years 
in the muiistry, which we haVe published almost in full, 
in order to give a view of Methodism in its infancy in 
Florida and of the trials of the preachers in many of 
the rural districts. 

Six located at the Conference, two of whom, Jno. S. 
Ford and Kaleigh Greene, afterward returned to the 
itinerancy. Josiah Evans, who had done as much hard 
work as any man of his age in the ministry, located to 
return no more. 

During this session, for the first time, we have an an- 
swer to the fourteenth question, " What amounts are 
necessary for the superannuated preachers, and the 
widows and orphans of preachers, and to make up the 
deficiencies of those who have not received their regu- 
lar allowance on the circuits?^' The answer was 
$4,137.81. In answer to the question, what has been 
collected, w^e catch our first glimpse at the financial 
operations of those days. 

For nearh^ fifty years the Church had been at work, 
and this is the first published evidence that she believed 
in the practical benevolence which was manifested in 
money -giving, save the rei)Ort of the missionary collec- 
tions of Wm. Capers, when hew^as establishing the mis- 
sion to the Creeks. That our Church, which has been 
so grandly heroic in her devotion to what she be- 
lieved to be right, had been sadly in the rear in her 
benevolent contributions, is a painful truth, one with 
which we are twitted in the published sermons of the 
amiable and gifted Bishop Elliot ; but how it could be 
otherwise under the instruction, or rather want of in- 
struction of the fathers, it is difiicult to conceive. 

All our preachers were missionaries. The people, 



m GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



301 



when the ministers first began their work, were alike 
poor; tlie demands of the home work, and tlie general 
poverty of the Methodists, and the evangelization of 
the Indians forbade any extra American work, but 
while this may be said in mitigation, it is very evident 
that the ministi-y had no true idea of the money po^ver 
in the Church. Revolt from error often goes too far, 
and revolt from the teachings of Konie, in which money 
had such high place and promised so mucli, led the 
Metliodists aiid Baptists to discard almost entirely the 
mammon of unrighteousness, and it became the enemy 
rather tlian the friend of the Churcii. This list of col- 
lections is the only true picture, of the liberality of the 
times we have been able to secure. The largest amount 
reported is from the Alcovi Circuit, which sent up 
$144, Augusta sent $27, Savannah, $131, Athens and 
Madison, $9.41. The Yellow Eiver, $2. There were 
but two applications for aid from the active workers, 
and the rest was divided among the superannuated 
preachers and the widows and orphans. The amount 
contributed for missions was $1,208. 

Andrew Ilammill was removed from the Columbus 
District and sent to the Savannah. The Augusta District 
ceases, and the territory hitherto included in it is divided 
between the Athens, Mil ledge ville, and Savannah. AVm. 
Arnold still remained on the Athens District, and Win. 
J. Parks was sent to the Milledge ville. He was living 
in Franklin County ; he could not move, and the near- 
est point on his district was 120 miles from him, the 
most remote perhaps 350. He shrank from the ap- 
pointment, but went to it, and did his work well. 

A new district was laid out, called the Cherokee, and 
Isaac Boring was appointed to it. It swept entirely 



302 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



across the northern part of the State, beginning at 
Clarksville, and ending at Yans Valley, all the way 
from the Savannali to the Coosa Elvers, and from 
Henry Connty to the Blue Ridge. 

There were two new missions on the district, the 
Vans Valley, which included all that section in the 
western part of the State north of Carroll Connty, 
and reaching up to Chattooga. J. T. Talley was sent 
to it. The Indians were still there, but a few white 
settlers, drawn thither by the fertility of the lands, were 
scattered through the valleys. The Connesauga Mis- 
sion joined the Vans Valley on the north, and extended 
eastward. It included the counties of Murray, White- 
field, Gordon, and parts of Gilmer lying on the Cone- 
sauga River. The office of a presiding elder in a new 
territory like this is especially important, and the gifted 
and devoted Boring was admirabl}^ suited to the work 
of filling it. As yet the Cherokee Indians occupied a 
large part of this section ; reluctant to leave the homes 
of their fathers, and to remove to an unknown land, 
yet realizing the hopelessness of a resistance to the 
power that demands it, this really admirable race of 
Indians were taking their last view of the charming 
valleys and beautiful mountains, which in a few more 
years they were to see no more forever. To the Ches- 
tatie Mission, in the Cherokee country, which was 
established the year before, Jno. D. Chappell was sent. 
All the effort of the State to keep white men from 
settling in the nation, where, according to the glowing 
reports of the time, the very river sands sparkled with 
gold, had been in vain, and some villages had already 
sprung up in this section. Among these was Nuckles- 
yille, afterward Auraria, in Lumpkin County. Here 



m GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 17a5-18G5. 



303 



the missionary had an appointment ; here crime held a 
dailv carnival. Garablino; cock-fio-htino^, drunkenness, 
debauchery of all kinds, did not condescend to seek 
a cover. One night the preacher, who preached at a 
private house, announced that the next night there 
^ would be religious service at another honse. A gam- 
bler arose and said, " Oyez, Oyez, I give notice that to- 
morrow night I will open my faro-bank," at a place he 
named. 

On the south of the Chestatee Mission, and reaching 
down till it joined the Decatur Circuit, was the Forsyth 
Mission, which was left to be supplied. 

As of old, Methodism strove to cover with her wings 
the whole land, to provide a ministry for all the 
people. Now she was able through her mission boards 
to supply a service to all, and numbers of gifted and 
devoted men arose at her bidding. The}^ were her 
children ; she had raised now a family of sons who 
were able to do the work which duty so imperiously 
demanded. At the next conference this Cherokee Dis- 
trict reported a membership of 3,666 members. 

Florida was now divided into two districts, the 
Tallahassee and St. Augustine. Geo. A. Cliappell was 
sent on the St. Augustine and Jno» W. Talley on the 
Tallahassee. The St. Augustine district included a 
considerable part of lower Georgia. The preachers 
on this hard work were all of them single men. Jno. 
W. Yarbrough was on the Irwin mission. He was a 
young man just from the mountains, and his first 
appointment, Irwin County, was in Southern Georgia, 
in the wire grass country. It is still a very large county, 
but then was several times as large as now. The lands 
are veiy poor^ the settlers few. In 1866 the writer of 

t 



304 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



this volume rode seventeen miles in its borders, without 
seeing a single dwelling, or a living being, save a deer 
leaping through the pine woods, and this was thirty 
vears after Yarbroup'h was sent there. There were not 
many Methodists in the section, but the church has 
striven to see to all the needs of these 23eople, aud with 
the opening of new lines of railway, and new industries 
beside cattle raising, there is hope of a new impetus 
both to the temporal and spiritual interests in that sec- 
tion. 

Hawkins ville appears for the first time as a separate 
charge, with James E. Evans as stationed preacher. 

It was quite a flourishing town ; as there was naviga- 
tion for boats to it the year round, it was an injportant 
commercial point. The productive plantations of Hous- 
ton, Pulaski and Dooly, as well as the country south of 
it, found a shipping point and market here, Thei-e was 
much wealth, and much dissipation and gayety. The 
church had been an appointment in the Houston Cir- 
cuit, and had only nine members in it. During the 
year there was a great revival, and at the next confer- 
ence one-hundred and fifty eight members were. re- 
ported. 

It coDtinued a separate charge for a few years, luit 
with the completion of the Central Railroad and witli 
the growth of Macon, Hawkinsville lost its commer- 
cial position and fell back into a circuit again. But 
wdien the Macon and Brunswick Eailroad was finished 
it began to revive again, and is now a flourishiug city 
with a o-ood church. 

Irwinton, which had been before in the Ocmulgee 
Circuit, was made a separate charge, and Jas. B. Payne 
was sent to it. He reported 577 white members. The 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



305 



Tallahassee district, under the presiding eldership of 
young Talley, included all the lower part of westei'u 
Georgia. Capel Kaiford was sent to the Lowndes Cir- 
cuit. This circuit enibi'aced as much territory as a 
district does now. The larger part of its scattered in- 
habitants were eno-asred in stock raisins;. Their cattle 
ranges covered large areas of wire-grass lands, thongli 
now and then, in some fertile hammocks, there were the 
prosperous cotton planters who sought a market for 
their produce by sending cotton to St. Mark's, Fla.,aiid 
shipping it thence to New York. This circuit, the 
boundaries of which we are unable exactly to define, 
included probably all that section of country sti-etching 
from the Okefonokee swamp, eastward to the Thomas 
county line. Thomas County, Georgia, was in tlie 
Monticello (Florida) Circuit, while Decatur County was 
supplied from the Gadsden (Fla.) Circuit. North of 
Decatur County was the Fort Gaines Circuit. Fort 
Gaines was now a young city, which was shipping cot- 
ton to New York and Europe, and the country around 
was being settled with ]-apidity. The presiding elder 
of the Tallahassee district ti'avelled on horseback from 
the Flint Eiver to the Okefonokee swamp, and from the 
gulf coast for over one hundred miles northward into 
Geoi'gia. The difSculties of travel w^ere very great, and 
the privations demanded of the severest kind. There 
was probably not a bridge in the whole district. The 
streams, wdiicli in summer time were shallow brooks, in 
the winter would have floated a frigate, and as there 
were few ferries, the preacher crossed them as he 
could. 

His fare in the wire-grass section of his district, 
which included a large part of it, was musty com bread 



306 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



and butter, milk, clabber, or Yoiipon tea, with now and 
then lionej, sometimes venison or dried beef. The home 
in which he reposed his wearv limbs we have not been 
out of sight of in this history, a pole cabin with a clap- 
board roof and a dirt floor ; but in some of the richer 
liammocks of Thomas and Decatur Counties, even there 
he found comfort, and if not delicate relinement, vet 
warm hospitality. In Florida, however, he came in 
contact even then with the,hio;hest culture and eleo-ance. 
The stationed preacher in Tallahassee was Archelaus IL 
Mitchell, and he had perhaps as intelligent and as god- 
less a corgregation as any young city in America pre- 
sented. 

The St. Augustine District presented even greater difli- 
culties. Beo-innino; at Telfair and Tattnall Counties the 
presiding elder made his way through the swamps of 
the Altamaha to Darien, thence down the coast into 
Florida, flnding the terminus of his long journey at St. 
Augustine, and joining the Tallahassee District on the 
M^est. 

Geo. F. Pierce was transferred to South Carolina 
and appointed to Charleston, and Wm. Capers took his 
place at Savannah. This was an instance of the 
ex(5hange of ministers between conferences, which is 
so often demandedi. in order to man the works, and yet 
so often denounced. Special transfers are not new fea- 
tures in Methodism, but where there is correspondence 
between committees and preachers, and the mutual in- 
terests of preacher and the individual congregation ai-e 
the moving influences, they are an umnixed evil and 
are new features in the Church. Not so when the 
appointing power selected by the Church for this work 
commands the transfer for general good. In the one 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



307 



case all selfish instincts are at work to secure a result, in 
the other oftentimes all are adverse. 

It will be a woful day — it is already a woful day — 
for the spirit of Methodism, when a pleasant place on 
the one hand and a brilliant preacher on the other are 
the objects soui^ht for, and the man transfers himself 
rather than is transferred by the Bishop. 

Windsor Graham, who was admitted on trial at this 
conference, had been for several years a useful exhorter 
in the Church. He continued a laborious and successful 
preacher for twenty years, lie was noted for the holi- 
ness of his life, his fervor, zeal, and the fruitfulness of 
his labors. He was superannuated for ten years, and 
w^as as constant in labor as his health would allow. One 
of his sons is a laborious preacher in Georgia at the 
present time. 

W. W. Robison was also admitted at this conference. 
He travelled for fourteen years, then located for near 
the same period, and then re-entered the conference, in 
which he remained till he died. He was an excellent 
man and an excellent preacher. He had travelled the 
best circuits, and had been on some of the best stations 
in the conference, and was always ac^ceptable and always 
beloved. His death was eminently peaceful. " He said 
he had trusted God for thirty yeai'S, and could trust 
Him to the end." ; ; 

He was remarkable for his gentlemanly bearing, his 
refinement and amiability. He, too, has bequeathed his 
ministerial robe to a son, who is an efticient worker in the 
South Georgia Conference. 

Edmund W. Reynolds entered at the same time, and 
remained in the work for over thirty years. He travel- 
led circuits in all sections of the State, and always did 



308 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



liis work well. He at last received a snperaimnated 
relation, and settled near Fairburn, where he continued 
to work as far as his strength allowed. He died very 
suddenly, and was found, after several days' searcli, by 
the wayside, lifeless. He was a decided character, a 
man of large frame and strong will, and had been a very 
hard worker in his active ministry. His son, John W» 
Reynolds, was a most gifted young preacher, and died 
during the year in which his father also died. 

Georgia now presented great diversity in her work. 
In the older parts of the State there was elegance, refine- 
ment, and high culture ; while in parts of Florida, 
northern and western Georgia, the hardest work of 
Humphries, Major, Hull, and Norton was being more 
than equalled. 

The missions to the slaves were worked most vigor- 
ously, and with good results. There was now nearly 
8,000 colored members in the State. 

The Conference for 1835 met in Savannah, January 
7th. Bishop Andrew presided. Eighteen were admitted 
on trial. 

Two young Northerners who^came to this conference 
were admitted on trial ; they were George H. Round 
and George W. Lan.e. The first took his place as class- 
ical teacher of the Manual Labor School ; the other, in 
delicate health, was appointed to St. Augustine, Fla. 
George W. Lane was the son of George Lane, who was 
for so maii}^ years a member of the Philadelphia Confer- 
ence, and book agent for the Church. He was highly 
gifted by nature, had been a hard student, and was one 
of the purest-hearted of Christian men. He was a re- 
inarkably fine preacher, and would have reached the 
highest eminence in the pulpit, but that the great need 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 17S5-1S65. 



309 



for educated Christian men to educate the children of 
Christians called him from the field he loved so well 
into the lecture-room of the professor. lie was selected 
first as a teacher in the Manual Labor School, and then 
as a professor in Emorv College. He was an enthusi- 
astic and accomplished teacher, bnt he never allowed 
his fondness for study or teaching to interfere with his 
religious labors. He loved to preach, and preached 
mnch. Not long after he came to Georgia he married 
a lovely woman in every way worthy of him, and spent 
a few happy and usefnl years in Oxford, as professor 
of the languages. He was, with his devoted colleagues, 
enlisted in the arduons and trying work of bnilding up 
a new college, and had seen it almost established, as he 
hoped, for the futnre, when, in 1847, he was taken vio- 
lently ill, and in the vigor of his young manhood passed 
away to his reward. George W. Lane was one of the 
loveliest and most gifted men who ever did work in the 
Georgia Conference, and his memory is a precions leg- 
acy to his brethren. 

Alexander Speer entered ,the conference and was 
stationed in Savannah. He was a man of very fine parts, 
had been a leading politician in South Carolina, and at 
one time was Secretary of State in that commonwealth. 
He was for some years a local preacher, and then 
entered the conference. After some veiy nseful ser- 
vice, he retired again to the local ranks, and was a nse- 
ful local preacher till his death. He was a man of very 
fine cultivation and of great native eloquence. In size he 
was very porth^, but, in spite of his corpulency, he was 
I active and useful as a pastor. He left two sons : Rev. 
Dr. Eustace W. Speer, for so long time a useful pastor 
in the conference, and now professor in the State 



310 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



TJiiiversity, and Judge Alexander M. Speer, of 
Griffin. 

Russell W. Johnson, one of two brothers who entered 
the conference this year, after some years of hard and 
useful work, located and settled in Jelferson County, 
where, as a local preacher and steward, he advanced the 
local interests of the Cliurcli. 

Dr. Lovick Pierce was placed on the Savannah Dis- 
trict. In this district Saiidersville first appears as a 
circuit. The Washington County Circuit had been one 
of the first in the State. Asbury had visited Buffalo 
Creek and Harris Meeting-house, New Chapel, and 
Fenn's Bridge, all of which are in tliat county. It was 
now a large circuit, including all of Laurens as well as 
all of Washington County, and had 405 members in it. 
The church in the town of Sandersville Avas an ungainly 
building, without paint, blinds, or ceiling, and located 
on the outskirts of the town. The leading men of 
Washington were wealthy disciples of Epicurus, some 
of them men of very fine intelligence, and openly and 
defiantly infidel. The fact that the circuit was a poor 
one, and the minister always poorly provided for, led for 
many years to the starvation policy, and preachers of 
most ordinary gifts were sent to the work to work hope- 
lessly; but in 1857 the Kev. W. J. Cotter, by an ear- 
nest effort, built a handsome church in Sandersville, and 
the conf ei'ence had labored to supply the work well ; so 
that now Sandersville is quite a pleasant station in the 
South Georgia Conference. The preacher on that cir- 
cuit in 1835 began his work on the borders of Hancock, 
and found his most remote appointment some sixty or 
seventy miles below, in the pine-woods of Montgomery. 

This year a most important change was made in the 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



311 



general aiTaiigemeiits of the circuits. For years Dr. 
Lovick Pierce had insisted that the meagre support of 
the preachers, and the want of success in many depart- 
ments of church work was owing to the great size of 
the circuits, and tliat the demands of the country vil- 
lages required that a preacher should live in them and 
go around his circuit every two weeks. This proposi- 
tion alarmed many preachers and people. If a preacher 
was not supported on the Cedar Creek or Apalachee 
Circuit, with its thousand members, and including near- 
ly three counties each, how could one county support a 
preacher. It was a question of simple arithmetic, but 
for once figures lied egregiously. The smaller cir- 
cuits did much better than the larger ones had done. 

The Cedar Creek, Apalachee, Alcovi, Ocnmlgee Cir- 
cuits are heard of no more. Many precious memories 
clustered around these namics, and they were not readily 
given up ; but they were now surrendered, and the loca- 
tion of the circuits was now indicated by the names they 
bore. There were generally from ten to fourteen 
churches in a circuit, and they were to be supplied with 
public service every two wrecks. 

The Forsyth Circuit had a new circuit formed from it 
—the Knoxville. The Apalachee was divided between 
the Madison, Watkinsvilie, and Greensboro, and this 
name, so dear to the old Methodists, ceases to be. 

The county of Jones was separated from the Cedar 
Creek Circuit, and James B. Payne was sent in charge 
of it. 

In this circuit lived Jno. W. Knight. He w^as an 
infidel tailor. lie w^as a man of really fine intellect, but 
Avas reckless in life as he was sceptical in his religious 
views. The preacher became attached to him, and used 



312 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



to go to his bench to talk with him. At last he persuaded 
Knight to go to the church ; he did so, became con- 
vinced of the truth of Christianity, and said, if not au- 
diblj' yet sincerely, " I surrender," and was at once con- 
verted.* lie began to work for his Master, and for thirty 
years has been a most useful travelHng preacher. 

Wm. J. Parks was on the Macon District, and found 
his work farther away from home than before. His 
highest hope was to see his family a few days six times 
during the year, and such was his industry that he held 
the ploiigli while he was at home, till he often left blood- 
stains on it. 

Samuel Anthony was for the second year on the 
Perry Circuit. It then included Houston, Pulaski, and 
Dooly, with parts of Bibb and Crawford. During tlie 
summer of 1834 a mighty awakening was felt. Tliis 
revival influence continued during the year 1835. The 
total number of accessions, white and colored, was 1,336. 
This was in addition to the accessions by certificate, 
which must have been numerous. There was a mani- 
festation of power like to that in the early days of the 
century, when men in their strength fell senseless under 
the weight of their emotions. Houston County liad now 
become thickly settled with a fine population, many of 
whom were South Carolina Methodists. From this 
date Methodism was established in this whole country, 
and there are now three prominent stations and four cii-- 
cuits where his circuit was. There were several large 
camp-meetings on the circuit, and they were^ as of yore, 
seasons for wneral ino-atherino;. 

The experiments of smaller circuits was fairly entered 



* His own words. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



313 



Upon, and its after-success attested the wisdom of the 
Bishop and his cabinet in following the counsel of 
Dr. Pierce. 

Tlie Church had suffered greatly from that conserva- 
tive spirit which refused to see that the change of the 
country demanded a relative change in the mode of 
conducting conference affairs and the large circuits, 
and the want of parsonages in the county towns had 
seriously impeded the progress of the Church. For the 
first time in Georgia Methodism, the travelling preacher 
felt the obligations, and was able to discharge any of the 
duties of a pastor; yet still pastoral service w^as neg- 
lected, as many of tlie most effective preachers had 
homes of their own, and spent their few leisure days at 
them, away from their circuits. 

The Cherokee District was still under the direction 
of Isaac Boring. This year the Cassville Mission was 
established. Cass, now Bartow County, was then one of 
the largest and one of the most fertile of the counties 
in the Cherokee Country, and though the Indians were 
still in some parts of the county, it w^as being rapidly 
settled. 

Frederick Lowry was sent to it, and reported at the 
next conference 130 members. 

From this time this populous and fertile country has 
been supplied with preachers, and there are now three 
large circuits and one station in the circuit which 
Lowry travelled. 

Tlie Monticello Circuit was formed this year from 
the Cedar Creek, and Jasper County was made a separate 
charge. It has continued such, and while not the most 
fruitful soil for Methodism, has not failed to give good 
return for labor expended. 
14 



314 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



CHAPTER X. 
1836-1840. 

Two Conferences in 1836— January Conference in Macon— Jno. 
W. Glenn — Geo. A. Chappell — General Conference of 1836 — 
Geo. F. Pierce Presiding Elder — Columbus Conference in 
December— Noble Generosity of Colui^ibus— First Confer- 
ence Minutes published — Death of John Howard — Christian 
Advocate— Great Revival in Warrenton — Thomas A. Morris — 
The Holston District in Upper Georgia— Conference of 1837 — 
Great Revival in La Grange— A Race-horse Named for a 
Preacher — Work in Florida — Massacre of a Preacher's Fam- 
ily—Conference IN Eatonton~Jas. R. Jackson— a. B. Long- 
street— G. J. Pearce— Revival in Upson— A. Means— Wm. Crum- 
ley — Among the Tomahawks— Fort Gaines— General Confer- 
ence OF 1840 — General Review. 

There were two conferences in 1836. The first was 
held in Macon, JannarylSth, Bishop Andrew presiding. 
John Howard for the last time was secretary. Eighteen 
were admitted on trial. Of these not a single one now 
remains. Jno. W. Glenn began his itinerant ministry 
at this conference. He was then a man of mature 
years, was a successful mechanic, and a man well-to- 
do in the world. He had prominent place among his 
own county people, and had been elected Judge of the 
Inferior Court. He had decided to enter the legal pro- 
fession, and had begun to study law when John Howard 
influenced him to yield to his convictions of duty and 
become a travelling preacher. 

He was so able a preacher, and withal possessed such 



m GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1835. 



315 



fine administrative capacity, that he was placed in the 
presiding eldership, and filled the office for many years 
with very signal ability. 

He was a man of unusual parts. Without making any 
claim to great learning, he really possessed that best 
of learninp; — a knowledo-e of men and thino-s. He was 
recognized as a wise man everywhere. Statesmen 
respected the value of his opinions, farmers and me- 
chanics were ready to take his advice, while in the 
Church his decisions were almost always accepted. 
He did not speak a great deal, but whenever he did his 
words were few, pointed, and forcible. It was very 
rare indeed for the conference to go against his will. 
He was for years a presiding elder and on large 
districts, and all those higher qualities which are 
demanded in one who has to control hundreds of 
churches and thousands of members were brought 
into exercise. In the often intricate questions of church 
law which were brought before him, he evinced remark- 
able legal ability. The work he was called to do was 
very difficult and entailed much labor; but he did his 
work without a murmur. He did not seem to have 
much gentleness in his nature, and those who saw the 
stern-looking man in the pulpit, savagely shaking his 
enormous head as he poured out, in homely Saxon, his 
stirring invectives against some popular evil, little 
dreamed how gentle and tender he was towards the 
feeble. He was a man of rare pulpit power ; and, 
although he was always plain and spoke for plain peo- 
ple, he was yet so racy and so strong that he was 
popular in the large cities as in the rural districts. 
Although one of the plainest and most conservative of 
men, he was willing to see when the day had passed 



316 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



for anything to which he had clung with affection, and 
to accommodate liimself readily to cliange. To the 
younger preachers he was a fatiier indeed. lie con- 
tinued for many years an active preacher, and when liis 
work gave way remained in cheerful retirement until 
the end came, when peacefully and triumphantly he 
passed to his reward. 

During the year the conference lost three valuable 
men by death : Andrew Ilammill, John R. Ilearne, and 
Benjamin Pope. 

Hammill, of whom we have already spoken, had done 
much most valuable work. He was a man of remark- 
able amiability and sobriety, and in intellectual polish 
had few superiors in the conference. He had bravely 
done all the hard work the Church required of him, and 
in the brightness of the day his sun went down. 

Benjamin Pope had run a short career, but one of the 
most brilliant. An unusual combination of excellences 
entered into his character. He was gentle and brave, 
gifted, cultivated, and humble, an heir of wealth, yet 
willingly surrendering all its comforts that he might 
preach the Word. At only thirty-two years old he went 
home. 

John E. Hearne was only twenty-five years old, and 
had been only three years a preacher, when he fell a vic- 
tim to the malaria of Burke County, w^hither he had 
gone as a missionary to the negroes. He was neither 
highly gifted nor had he been carefully educated, but 
he was better than that — a man of remarkably deep and 
earnest piety, and of great zeal in the work. 

Of the collections reported at this conference. Sa- 
vannah sent only $10.50, while Augusta sent $67.00, 
the Decatur and Carroll Circuit only $1.50 each, while 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



317 



Macon leads the whole list or cities with a contribution 
of over $170.00. The Forsyth Circuit contributes more 
than any of the circuits, sending np §215.00. Columbus 
went far ahead of Augusta or Savannah, and sent up 
§152.95. There are eleven from the effective preachers 
who received a small addition to their salaries from this 
fund, and, as no one was permitted to draw upon it who 
received his stipend of one hundred dollars if single, and 
twice that if married, it is evident that there were many 
of the preachers who did not receive even that amount. 

The Savannah District reappears, and so does the 
Augusta. The Savannali is a compact district, covering 
the counties immediately around the city, up as far as 
Effingham and down as far as Darien. The Augusta 
District included ten appointments in counties formerly 
in the Savannah District. Geo. F. Pierce was presid- 
ing elder on the district, his first appointment of that 
kind. \Vm. Arnold continued on tlie Athens, and 
Geo. A. Chappell came from Florida to the Columbus 
District. Jno. W. Talley was on the Savannah, Geo. 

Carter on the St. Mary's, and Jno* L. Jerry on the 
Tallahassee. 

Geo. A. Chappell, who was presiding elder on the 
Columbus District, had joined the South Carolina Con- 
ference in 1829, and was now in the seventh year of his 
ministry. He was living in the Forsyth Circuit when 
he was converted, and was one of two brothers who 
entered the conference together. His laotlier was 
famous for her great piety, and her sons, Geo. and Jno. 
D. Chappell, were consecrated by her to the self-sacri- 
ficing labor of preaching the Gospel. The demands 
npon Geo. A. Chappell were of the sternest kind. He 
was, if not a pioneer, yet not long after the first. He 



318 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



travelled the hardest districts and missions without com- 
plaint, and while on the Lumpkin Circuit, in the then 
new country of South-western Georgia, July 23, 1838, 
he died in great peace. 

On the Lexington Circuit this year was Tilman Dou- 
glass. After travelling some years, the need of liis 
family forced him to location. He studied medicine, 
and located in Alexander, Burke County. Here he 
labored both in his medical profession and as a local 
preaclier. 

He was much esteemed by those who knew him best, 
and, after a life of usefulness, died happily. 

The delegates were elected to the general conference. 
Owing to the reduction in the ratio of representatives 
only five delegates were selected. They w^ere Lovick 
Pierce, John Howard, Samuel K. Hodges, Elijah Sin- 
clair, and W. J. Parks. 

This conference met at Cincinnati, the first v/hich 
had ever met in the Great West. Since the last session 
two of the Bishops had died : Wm. McKendree, in the 
ripeness of old age ; John Emory, in the prime of a 
mature manhood. The exciting questions with refer- 
ence to church government had been disposed of ; but 
a new and more exciting question was to engage the 
attention of the conference, w^iich was to result first in 
a secession from, and then in a division of the Church. 
As long ago as 1816 the slavery question had been dis- 
posed of by compromise. The effort to reopen it was 
now to be made. Four years before this time, Thomp- 
son, the English Abolitionist, had been lecturing in New 
England. He made manj^ disciples among the New 
England preachers, and some of them not only attended 
his lectures, but delivered lectures on the subject them- 



m GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 17S5-1865. 



319 



selves. The Church at that time was largely opposed to 
slavery, but not less so to abolition ; and in this confer- 
ence a resolution was introduced condemning the course 
of those who attended abolition meetings, or delivered 
abolition addresses. Tliis resolution was advocated by 
Northern and Southern men, and was passed by a large 
majority. Orange Scott and his followers then seceded 
from the Church and formed the Wesleyan Church, 
agreeing in doctrine, but disagreeing in government 
wuth the Church they left. The conference elected 
Beverly Waugh of Maiyland, and Thomas A. Morris 
of Ohio, and Wilbur Fisk of Vermont, as Bishops ; 
Nathan Bangs, missionary secretary ; and Samuel 
Luckey and Jno. A Collins, editors Christian Advocate 
and Journal. 

Two Bishops were ordained, Beverly Waugh and 
Thomas A. Morris. Di\ Fisk, being in feeble health, 
never accepted the office, and died in a few years after 
this. At this conference, the chapter witii reference 
to location without consent was admitted into the dis- 
cipline, almost as it now stands. Baltimore was selected 
as the place for the meeting of the next general con- 
ference, and the conference adjourned on the 2Tth 
May, 1836. 

Tiie appointments made at Macon had been very 
wise ones, and as the demand for active workers was 
now fully met, the field was well supplied. The pre- 
siding elders were all of them energetic and earnest 
and capable. A cabinet composed of such men as Dr. 
L. Pierce, Wm. Arnold, Wm. J. Parks, Charles Hardy, 
and Jno. L. Jerry, presided over by Bishop Andi'ew, 
were not apt to make any serious mistakes in making 
appointments, and they did not. 



320 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



Juo. W. Tallej, G. F. Pierce, ^Ym. Arnold, Wm, J. 
Pai'ks, G. A. Chappell, Isaac Boring, Jno. L. Jerry, and 
Geo. W. Carter were a line corps of presiding elders — ■ 
some of them young and ardent, some of them old and 
experienced — all of them gifted and pious. 

No one who has not carefully studied Methodism in 
her formative state can realize the vast importance dur- 
ing that period of an able presiding eldership. These 
filled the double office of evangelists and bishops. A 
metropolitan in the early Church had very rarely such 
a territory under his surve}^, and many, very many 
Riglit Keverends, who boast loudly of apostolical 
descent, have not nearly the number of connnunicants, 
or preachers under their supervision^ as these j)residing 
elde'rs in Southern Methodism. 

George F. Pierce, now in the fifth year of his minis- 
try, was placed on the Augusta District. It was a 
compact district in the heart of Middle Georgia, and 
included a part of the State in which Methodism had 
been longest established. In 1809, his father, then the 
youngest man in the office in America, had travelled a 
part of the same district. Tlie son was now about the 
age his father was at the time he was invested with 
the office. He entered upon the work with enthusiasm. 
His love for the planting people of Georgia, with their 
plain and unpretending ways, had always been ardent, 
and wdiere many a young man of culture and refine- 
ment would fret and complain at hardships and Avant 
of congenial society, this young preacher found only 
delight. Travelling his district in a buggy, leaving his 
fair young wife for weeks at a time ; from one quar- 
terly'' conference to another, from one camp-meeting to 
another, he went to work w^ith all his strength and 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



321 



ardor. He was laboring for souls, and God crowned 
his labors with great success. While j'Oung Pierce was 
firing the hearts of his preachers, and inspiring the 
people with a higher hope, Isaac Boring, in a more 
difficult field, was laboring with equal ardor. Boring 
possessed two qualities that fitted him eminently well 
to the field in which he w^orked. One was very strong 
common sense, and the other was invincible pertina- 
city. He knew no such word as defeat, and he dared 
all the dangers of his really perilous work with a fear- 
less heart. Jno. L. Jerry, in Florida, was a born hero. 
The story of his life, if fully told, would read like a ro- 
mance. He was bravely facing the angry Seminole, and 
the no less deadly malaria that exhaled from the 
swamps. Nor was the work of Geo. A. Chappell much 
less difficult. From Carroll County to Fort Gaines he 
was forced to travel. The first settlement of the coun- 
try is always followed by times of sickness amounting 
almost to pestilence, and he travelled where ague and 
fever raged almost universally. Despite the fact that 
the work was so well done, there is reported a decrease 
of 1,398. This result may be attributed to the greater 
attention to church records. Thej were at the first 
very carelessly kept, but Dr. Few had introduced a res- 
olution at the conference before, that the preachers in 
chaige should be required to keep a record book, and 
when the records were revised, it may be that numbers 
were left olf, but it is evident that the revival spirit was 
not high. The year 1836 was one of those which are 
known as flush. Cotton was high. Speculation was 
w^ild. Paper j)romises were abundant. The new cot- 
ton lands of South-west Georgia were then most produc- 
tive. Railroads were being projected, and all things 
14^ 



322 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



seemed to be on the tide to success. To make more cot- 
ton, to buy more iiegroes, to buy more land, to make more 
cotton, and so on in a vicious circle, seemed to be the 
ruling aim of the planter. The country was wild in its 
pursuit after wealth, but God was providing something 
better than mone}^ — a great revival — and to prepare 
the way for it the rod of a terrible chastisement was 
lifted, but ere it fell the Church suffered spiritually. 

The second conference during the year 1836 was 
held in Columbus, December 7th. 

There was no Bishop present, and Wm. J. Parks was 
selected to preside. Bishop Andrew reached the con- 
ference on the 10th and took his seat. Whiteford 
Smith, who had been transferred from the South Caro- 
lina Conference the year before, was the secretary of 
the body. It was an interesting session. Columbus 
had now been settled a little over ten years. It had 
grown with great rapidity, and was already a thriving 
city. Dr. Pierce and Samuel K. Hodges had their 
homes in it, and many old Putnam and Greene County 
Methodists had removed to it. It had been noted from 
the beginning for its liberal views and generous contri- 
butions, but during this conference it did an act of un- 
precedented generosity. Dr. Pierce, who lived in Co- 
lumbus, asked for a list of preachers in active work who 
were deficient in quarterage. The report was given 
him; the amount of deficiency was $1,851. In a day 
or two he presented to the conference the whole amount, 
which had been raised by the citizens of Columbus. It 
Avas a noble deed nobly done. For the first time in the 
history of the Church in Georgia had every deficiency 
in salary been provided for. 

At this conference 3,000 copies of the minutes were 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



323 



ordered. They were to be published by the preacher 
on the Columl)iis Station, and the presiding elder of that 
district, and distributed gratuitously and paid for out of 
the missionary collections. Twelve were admitted on 
trial. 

John Howard, who for so long a time had been one 
of the most efficient preachers in the conference, was 
dead. He died in August of this year in the vigor of 
his manhood and in the height of his usefulness. After 
his return from the general conference he had entered 
actively upon his work as agent for the Manual Labor 
School ; after a visit to Twigg's camp-meeting he was 
taken severely ill, and though he appeared convalescent, 
he relapsed and died. He had been beloved, honored, 
trusted, and, best of all, God had richly blessed his 
labors. 

Atford M. Batty, who was quite a young man and 
in the third year of his ministrj^ had been stationed ou 
one of the islands not far from Savannah, as missionary 
to the negroes, and had fallen before the malaria, leav- 
ino; a vouns: wife destitute. The conference raised a 
collection for her immediate relief, and with a letter of 
condolence forwarded it to her. 

The publication of the Southern Christian Advocate^ 
with Dr. Capers as editor, had been o]-dered by the 
general conference in Cincinnati, and at this confer- 
ence, resolutions were passed tendering support to the 
new paper. 

The college interests of the State were the engrossing 
ones and agents were appointed for the Georgia Female 
College in Macon and for the newly established Emory 
College at Oxford. 

Whiteford Smith, who was ordained an elder at this 



324 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



conference, was reappointed to Angusta, in wliicli lie 
had been one j^ear. lie remained only a few years in 
Georgia and returned to South Carolina. 

During the month of May the Christian Advocate 
began its career. From this time forth we have at 
least glimpses of the every-day working of the Church, 
and are thus able to present a fuller account than we 
have hitherto had material for. 

Willis D. Matthews writes during the year from the 
Greenville Cii'cuit that there had been evidences of 
deep religious interest in its bounds, which at length 
resulted in a gracious sweeping revival, and which be- 
gan in this interesting and remarkable way: Some 
little girls and a yonng lady were visiting the house 
of a Methodist. The father and mother were away. 
The child proposed, as bed-time came, that they should 
have the nsual devotions. The Bible was brought out, 
and after reading a chapter, she knelt in prayer. The 
young lady became deeply affected, and under the 
prayer of the child was converted. The parents re- 
turned soon afterward and found them rejoicing. A 
meeting was appointed in the church near by, and the 
fire kindled at that family altar blazed all around the 
circuit. Many were converted. 

Although in 1834 and 1835 there had been such a won- 
derful work in Houston, yet during this year, nnder the 
ministry of J. B. Payne and Charles L. Haj^s, over 300 
were converted. On the Watkinsville Circuit, under 
the charge of Jno. W. Glenn and Walter R. Branham, 
then in his first year, there was a gracious revival, and 
on the Forsyth Circuit, Samuel Anthony in charo^e, 
over 200 joined the church. On the Warrenton Cir- 
cuit, in the Augusta District, to which Jno. P. Duncan 



m GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



325 



had been sent, there was a gracions work. It began at 
the canip-meeting. Bishop Pierce, then presiding elder, 
was ]3resent. The camp-meeting was of all j)laces the 
one in which the 3'Onng presiding elder loved to be, and 
the two worked on. A large number were converted. 
The meeting closed, and with high hopes the young 
preacher adjourned to Warrenton. Ilis co-laborer 
went with him, and preached with power, but though 
tlie meeting continued for several days, there was no 
evidence of success. One day the preacher announced 
sadly that lie must close the meeting. A young man of 
tiue social position came to him, and requested him not 
to close it, and promised, if he would hold another 
meeting, he would go forward for prayer. The bell 
was rung, and he did as he had promised. Others fol- 
lowed, and a great work resulted. Over 100 joined the 
church in that circuit during the year. At the next 
conference 1,170 were reported as the increase among 
the whites. The conference met at Athens, December 
13, 1837, Bishop Morris presiding, Thomas A. Mor- 
ris, the presiding bishop of the conference, was a West- 
ern Yirginiaii, and was raised on the frontier. Before 
he was twenty he began to preach. Tie was a man of 
very vigorous mind, and very studious. He improved 
rapidly, and after being called to various high places in 
the Church, was elected a Bishop in 1836, at Cincinnati. 
This was his first tour through the South. On the 
Sunday of the conference he preached the sermon 
found in his published collection, on " The poor have 
the Grospel preached to them." It was an excellent 
sermon, and had fine effect. He came to Georgia only 
once after this. Eight years after this conference the 
Church was divided, and Bishop Morris, wliose home 



326 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



was in the North, adhered to the M. E. Church. 
He was much beloved in the South, and his utter- 
ances during the war, however distasteful to his old 
Southern friends, did not rob them of their love to him. 
He was a remarkably discreet, well-poised man, who 
met all tlie demands which were made upon him. 
He was a very reticent man, who was careful to sin not 
with his tongue ; an exceedingly pleasant writer, who 
wrote as well as he preached. He was a man of very 
large size, and of great dignity and gravity of aspect. 
He died at his home in Ohio, full of years and honors, 
in 1874, having been for some time on the retired list 
of the Bishops of the M. E. Church. 

Tlie collection for conference claims amounted during 
this year to $2,300, Columbus beiug at the head of the 
list, reporting $412. The Forsyth Circuit next with $140, 
Augusta $140, and Athens $119. The Carrollton Circuit 
sent up $1.20, and Zebulon $1.25. The collections for 
missions amounted to $5,737, about $1,000 less than was 
appropriated to the work in Georgia. The districts con- 
tinue unchanged as far as their presiding elders are con- 
cerned, save that Jno. W. Glenn takes the place of Isaac 
Boring on the Cherokee District, and Wm. Choice takes 
the St. Mary's. This district extended from Americus in 
Georgia, to Jacksonville in Florida. The uncouc^uerable 
Seminoles had at last broken forth in open hostility, and 
were on the warpath in the swamps of East Florida, so 
the preachers did not this year go below Jacksonville. 

The district of John W. Glenn, which had been organ- 
ized by the energetic Boring, was not diminished in size, 
and still extended from the Blue Ridge to Monroe Coun- 
ty, and from the Savannah to the Chattaliooche^. The 
circuits were as large as districts are now, and while 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



327 



the country was rapidly developing, there were many 
hardships to be encountered. Through many portions 
of his work there were only Indian trails for roads, and 
the dusky savages were yet in the new country. Glenn 
was well suited for the work ; brave in heart and stj-ong 
in body, able to command and to control ; scorning 
all effeminacy, and cheering his preachers by the force 
of his example, no man could have done the difficult 
work better than himself. He had fifteen preachers 
and nearly 5,000 members under his charge, and nearly 
one-fourth of the State to travel over. 

During this year that portion of Georgia which lies 
north of the Blue Eidge was divided into circuits and 
supplied with preachers from the Holston Conference. 
It was called the Newtown District, and D. B. Gum- 
ming was the presiding elder. There was the Chattoo- 
ga, Spring Place, Newtown, Elijay, Iliwassie, Valley- 
town, Coontown, and Oothcalooga Missions. They 
were all supplied with young unordained men, the only 
elder in the district being E. Still, on the Elijay Mission. 
At the next conference 665 members were reported in 
this portion of the work. Many Cherokees still re- 
mained in this section, and 752 were reported in the 
Cherokee Mission in Upper Georgia, Upper Alabama, 
and East Tennessee. 

For the history of the mission work among the 
Cherokees in Georgia, the reader is referred to a suc- 
ceeding chapter. 

The work among both whites and Indians in the Cher- 
okee country under charge of D. B. Cuniming, includes 
Chattooga, which reports 296 members ; Elijay with 
126, and Blairsville with 161 ; Yalleytown, CoontoMm, 
and Oothcalooga with 570 Indians. This work called 



328 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



for great heroism, and vv^e have the before-told story of 
the hardships of the hardest frontier which awaited 
these devoted men ; but a glorious success attended their 
efforts. The Spring Place Circuit included the counties 
of Murray, Gordon, and Whitfield ; the Elijay, the 
large counties of Gilmer and Fannin, and a part of now 
Lumpkin ; the Blairsville, Union and Rabun, and por- 
tions of Tennessee contiguous to these counties. Spring 
Place at this time was the centre of a very thrifty coun- 
try. Few sections of Georgia have been so soon peopled 
by a class of enterprising settlers as the rich valleys of 
Murray and Gordon, and few people have been of ruder 
manners than many of them. As yet the railroad had 
not been built, and this valley was the centre of influ- 
ence, and noted for its wild, reckless wickedness. Here 
Vann, the Indian chief, had his elegant residence ; here 
the Moravian Mission had been established, and here 
was the seat of those parties who waged an internecine 
war in Upper Georgia. The preacher in charge re- 
ported 190 white members, and only five colored. 

The district of John W. Glenn adjoined this ITol- 
ston District. The total amount collected for the con- 
ference in this entire district w^as a little over seventy 
dollars. This is an indication of what the preacher and 
presiding elder received. There were only two missions 
in the district, and the preachers were dependent upon 
quarterage alone. As an illustration of what each 
one was paid, we find that Josiah Lewis received fifty- 
five dollars from the conference fund, not having se- 
cui-ed §200 all told on his work. Nor was this meagre 
pay alone given in this district, but it was thus over the 
whole conference. There w^ere as yet very few parson- 
ages in the State, and of the members of the conference 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



329 



there were twenty-five who had homes of their own, in 
a conference of perhaps not more than fifty married 
men in active work. The difficulty of making appoint- 
ments was greatly increased by this state of things, and 
oftentimes appointments which were considered very 
afflicting resulted only from the fact that the preacher 
could not move his family. 

At this conference James E. Evans was transferred to 
South Carolina, and James Sewell came to Savannah. 
Of James Sewell, who was a remarkable man, w^e have 
given a sketch in another chapter. 

James B. Payne v/as sent to La Grange Circuit. Meth- 
odism had been in fertile soil in this new section of the 
State ; and, though the La Grange Circuit had set apart 
the Harris and Greenville Circuit, yet in the county of 
Troup alone there were 528 members, but during this 
year there was a most remarkable and memorable revi- 
val in La Grange and the county around it. Froui his 
entrance into the ministry, James B. Payne had been 
wonderfully successful in winning souls. He found 
much apathy in religion in the town of La Grange, and, 
although there were many valuable members of the 
Church there, there was much open wickedness. He 
told his brethren, one Sabbath, that his time was so lim- 
ited that he could not visit them all at their homes, but 
wished to meet the members at the church the next 
morning at nine o'clock. When the morning came, a 
few were there. While they were engaged in Christian 
conversation a lady, not a member of the Church, be- 
came deeply affected. With this the work begun, and 
night services were appointed. The young men of the 
community had enterprised a ball, and although the 
meeting was going on, the ball w^as not postponed. The 



330 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



church was lighted, and so was the ball-room. The ball 
went on, so did the meeting. The managers of the ball 
were conscious of having done wrong, and. the next 
morning the leader of them proposed that they should 
go to the prayer-meeting. They did so. Several of 
them became penitent. They were nearly all converted, 
and the manao^ers of that ball became the leadins* mem- 
bers of the Church in La Grange. At the camp-meeting 
that year 120 were converted. There was a total acces- 
sion to the Church on the circuit of over 500 mem- 
bers. 

There was a race-track near the town, and a great 
lover of the turf had invested largely in it. 

In the revival, the leading patrons of the track were 
converted, and a race and a ball was an impossibility. 
The racer had a fine horse, and as a retaliation he 
named him Jimmy Payne, and so the race-track became 
familiar with the name of him who had been mainly 
the instrument of making at least one track useless. 

The Baptists and Presbyterians joined heartily in 
the meeting, and all the churches were greatly blessed. 
The next jesiv La Grange became, in connection with 
West Point, a station, a place it has held to the present 
time. 

Whiteford Smith, who had spent one year in Au- 
gusta, was sent this year to Athens. The member- 
ship there was one hundred and one, and among them 
were some most excellent people. During the year 
there was a gracious revival, of which we have given 
account elsewhere. The total increase in the State 
was 3,091. 

The years 1837 and 1838 will be remembered as times 
of great commercial disasters. From the opening of 



m GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



331 



tlie new coimtiy to the settlers there had been much 
apparent prosperity, but now the crash came. Cotton 
went down, land sympathized, and fortunes, soon made, 
were sooner lost. Yet religion prospered. It is a re- 
markable feature in the history of the Church, that 
w^hen there is the most temporal advei'sity there is 
often the greatest spiritual advancement. The collec- 
tions do not even fall off. During this year Georgia 
raised more money for missions than ever before, and 
sent $7,000 to the relief of the Charleston brethren 
whose churches had been burned. This was indeed a 
year of revivals ; sixty-eight joined the church in 
Augusta in one meeting. Five hnndred and tifty white 
and colored in Columbus ; one hundred and six in 
Lincoln ; three hundred and fourteen in Houston ; fifty 
at one camp-meeting in Franklin County. 

The missionary cause seems to have received a new 
impetus. Missionary societies were organized in the 
various counties, and missionary meetings were held. 
In the county of Greene alone, Peyton P. Smith re- 
ported $378.43 as collected for missions. 

In Florida there was call for the hio-liest heroism. 
The cruel and unconquerable Seminoles were waging 
exterminating war, and the preachers held their ground 
at the risk of their lives. That grand man, Jno. L. 
Jerry, whose brave heart led him to face all danger, 
still mustered his band of heroes, and from block-house 
to block-house moved on his work. He says in a letter 
to the Christian Advocate and Journal^ that on Mon- 
day we learned that the Indians had attacked the house 
of old Father Baker, and killed him. and his wife, and 
one grandchild ; the other was found asleep) in his arms, 
though wounded." lie now went to Suwanee and met 



332 



fflSTORY OF METHODISM 



Ilowren, and preached to a large congregation of offi- 
cers and citizens. Some of tlieni had come thirty miles. 

When I returned home, my dear wife was overjoyed 
to see jne. They were expecting an attack on Monti- 
cello. She had two pistols, a dirk, and a tomahawk to 
defend herself and her children." Yet he and his 
preachers still went on with the camp-meetings. Alas, 
some of the preachers did not escape so well. Tilman 
D. Purefoy was returning home, when he heard that 
the Indians had attacked his home, and killed" his 
family. He found his wife horribly wounded, but still 
living. She had been shot by seven balls, toma- 
hawked and scalped, yet was still alive. She strangely 
recovered. His negroes lay about the yard killed, and 
his two children, after being murdered, were burned up 
in the house. 

This, then, was the Florida work, and these the j)erils 
which those brave men had to face. During this year 
the college interest Avas engrossing much attention. 
Bishop Pierce had accepted the presidency of the Geor- 
gia Female College ; and Bryan and Benning, agents of 
Emory College, were busy canvassing the State. Of 
this, however, more in another place. 

The conference met in the village of Eatonton, Dec. 
11, 1838, Bishop Andrew presiding. The session was 
largely taken up, apart from attendance to the usual 
questions, with matters concerning the newly-enterprised 
educational institutions. The Belief Society of the con- 
ference was at last incorporated, and the preachers were 
urged to bring the interests of this new and useful soci- 
ety before the people. They were instructed to preach 
on the subject of missions, and to circulate the newh^- 
published prize-essay of John Harris, '^Mammon," 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 17S5-18G5. 



333 



among the people. The Sunday-school mterest seems 
to have been the least reo-ardecl. 

James B. Jackson was admitted on trial at this time. 

He had been a very poor boy, who worked as a day- 
laborer, and, although quite a youth, could not read. 
He was employed by a good Presbyterian to pick cotton 
for him. The children of the family took great interest 
in him, and taught him to read. One of the daughters 
gave him a New Testament, and that was his first, and 
then his only book. He spelled his way through it, and 
its influence and their counsels brought him to Christ. 
He now" applied himself to study, and improved rapidly. 
He began to teach, then was licensed to preach and 
entered the conference. He soon rose to high place. 
He w^as on all kinds of work — circuits, stations, and dis- 
tricts — and always did his work well. 

His mind was very philosophical in cast, and he was 
a fine metaphysician, and perhaps too fond of specula- 
tion. He was transferred to Florida to meet a demand 
in that conference after he had been nearly thirty years 
in active work in Georgia. There w^as promise of much 
work before him, w^hen in a railroad accident he was so 
injured as to soon die, but not before he left his testi- 
mony to the precious consolation of the truths he had 
preached. 

Augustus B. Longstreet, of whom we have spoken 
before, was admitted into the travelling connection at 
this conference. He had filled the highest places in the 
State to which he had aspired, and there w^as no position 
•which he might not have reached if he had sought it, 
but he came in the maturity of his manhood's ripest 
powers and presented himself as an applicant for admis- 
sion to the conference, and for his qiiadrennivym of 



334 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



study. Although he was a graduate of Tale, aud had 
been on the judicial bench, yet he went through his 
regular examination at every conference, not only on tlie 
deep subjects of theology, but on English grammar and 
geography. The only adverse report against him was 
that he tripped in his examination on English gram- 
mar. He was this year appointed to Augusta, but the 
next was called to the presidency of Emojy College as 
the successor of Dr. Few. Of his career here our 
chapter of the college gives account. After some 
years in Georgia he was called to the presidency of 
Centenary College, in Louisiana, and then to that of the 
University of Mississippi. His family consisted of only 
a wife and two daughters, the eldest, Fannie, the wife of 
Dr. Henry Branham ; and the second, Virginia, the wife 
of the Hon. L. Q. C. Lamar. They all removed with 
him to Mississippi. The burdens of his office became 
too heavy for him, and he resigned it, expecting to spend 
his old age in peaceful retirement, but he was called 
from that by an invitation to take the presidency of the 
South Carolina College. It was, perhaps, the only call 
which could have drawn him from his quiet home; but 
early association with Calhoun, his friendship for Mc- 
Duffie, his taste for Carolina politics, and the general 
features of tlie old Carolina society, than which none 
could have been more delightful, overcame his reluc- 
tance and he went to Columbia. The war found him 
again in Mississippi. When it ended lie was in body 
feeble, yet still mentally .strong, and comforting him- 
self, as he contemplated the wreck of all things about 
him, with the precious consolations of Christ. At 
last his dear wife, who had been his life-long strength 
and joy, passed from him ; and soon after, quietly. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



335 



calmly, joyfully, he too sought his home beyond the 
waves. 

Few men have presented such a blending as belonged 
to Judge Longstreet. Few men have possessed such 
high gifts, such advanced scholarship, and such striking 
common sense. Few men have had such a fund of 
humor, and yet such perfect balance of mind. Few 
Christians have avoided so entirely all narrowness on 
the one hand, and all false latitudinarianism on the 
other. A full biographical sketch of this extraordinary 
man is a desideratum, but we can do no more than 
furnish here a brief monograph. 

While seventeen were admitted, 0]ily two were lo- 
cated. The number of locations decrease every year, 
evincing not a greater devotion to the work on the part 
of the preachers, but a greater willingness on the pait 
of the people to keep them in the field, and to furnish 
at least a scanty support. 

Geo. F. Pierce, who had presided with such ability 
and had been so useful on the Augusta District, was 
called to the presidency of the Georgia Female College^ 
in Macon, and Dr. Lovick Pierce was the agent for it ; 
so the Augusta District had a new presiding elder, 
Saml. Anthony, who had for several years been so won- 
derfully successful as a circuit preacher in Middle 
Georgia. His home was lixed in Washington. Gad- 
well Jefferson Pearce, who died in 1876, was also 
admitted. He was a vigorous, strong-minded, earnest 
young man, who, without any considerable advantages 
in early life, educated himself and became a man of ex- 
cellent culture. For nearly forty years he was an active 
preacher. Bold, original, earnest, eloquent, he was a 
power in the pulpit. Genial, sparkling around the fire- 



33G 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



side, lie was a power there. Severe attacks of at first 
bronchitis, and then rheumatism, unfitted him for regular 
work, and for some years he was agent of the Bible 
Society, and for more a Sunday-school agent, and his 
whole time was given up to working among the 
churches, aud especially with the cliildren. Although 
nominally a Sunday-school agent, he was really an 
evangelist. Ere his health failed partially he had con- 
ducted revival meetings of wonderful character. In 
Columbus, in Augusta, and especially in Athens, he had 
been very useful. While stationed in Athens, in 1846, 
there was a revival of wonderful power. In his later 
years, as an evangelist, he was a power. Tn Marietta, 
Barnesville, CuUoden, wherever he went, the blessing 
of God went with him. He lost sight of everything 
else save the one work of saving souls. 

He was a bold debater on the conference floor, and 
one in whose judgment there was great reliance. 

He was the soul of honor, and no man felt his inter- 
ests imperilled when they were in his care. 

After years of hard work he sadly sought retirement, 
and, not long after the conference at which he had been 
superannuated, he suddenly died, but died as calmly and 
as believingly as he had lived. 

For the first time Covington and Oxford appear as a 
station, with Isaac Boring as preacher in charge, and 
Emory College, with I. A. Few President, A. H. Mitch- 
ell and George W. Lane Professors. The Manual Labor 
School still continues with Dr. A. Means as Superin- 
tendent and George H. Pound as teacher. 

JohnW. Glenn still supervised the interests of the 
Cherokee District. In this district the Marietta Mission 
now made its appearance. The county of Cobb had 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



337 



been laid out in 1832, and was now being settled by 
numbers who had been drawn to it by the prospect of 
securing cheap homes. Marietta was selected as the 
county-site in 1834, and in 1835 John P. Dickinson was 
sent to the- Gumming Circuit. He had an appointment 
at the log court-house in Marietta. This village was 
served for several years by the preacher from the Ciim- 
ming work, but this year Cobb was made a separate mis- 
sion, and Russell W. Johnson was sent upon it. He 
was a good preacher andw^as successful in his work, and 
reported at the conference of J 839, 395 members in the 
new mission. This mission included all of Cobb, a part 
of Cherokee, and a part of Forsyth. The Dahlonega 
Mission included all of Lumpkin, White, and parts of 
Cherokee and Forsyth, while the McDonough Circuit 
included Butts, Henry, a part of Newton, and a part of 
Monroe. These immense circuits, which called for such 
labor and such sacrifices, are always the necessity of 
new countries, but have their daj, are reluctantly given 
up, and rarely ever until the Church has been seriously 
injured by surface culture. The district of John W". 
Glenn at the present time is divided between the Elber- 
ton, Atlanta, Griffin, La Grange, Gainesville, Dalton, 
and Rome. The size of the district and the labor of 
travelling it may be judged from this fact, and froni 
the further fact that as yet there was not a mile of 
railroad in this part of the State. 

La Grange was this year made a station in connec-^ 
tion w^ith West Point, and Jarnes B. Payne sent to it. 

The Macon District was still under charge of Wm. 
Arnold. The newer parts of this district had been 
much blessed during the past few years. We have 
spoken of the revivals on the Perry and Forsyth Cir- 
15 



338 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



cuits. This year there was a remarkable camp-meeting 
in Upson, on the Thomaston Circuit, of which W. W. 
Eobison had charge. The Upson Camp-ground was 
in the midst of an excellent settlement, and to it came 
citizens even from the neighboring county of Monroe 
and occupied tents. Good meetings had been common 
at the annual assemblage. There were a large number 
of young married men who were friends of the Church, 
but had never been converted. Among them was 
Edwin B. Atwater. He sat in the congregation^ at first 
an unconcerned hearer. During the progress of the 
sermon he was thoroughly awakened and happily con- 
verted. He went at once to work, and during the meet- 
ing over 150 persons professed religion. In our sketch 
of Methodism in the cities we have given full account 
of the wonderful revivals in Augusta, Columbus, and 
Savannah. The increase during the year was 3,894 
white members — over 7,000 in two years. 

The collection for the year was $5,030.87. During 
the year 1839, the centenary of Methodism arrived, and 
centenary collections and centenary meetings w^ere held 
all over the land. In Georgia there was great enthusi- 
asm. The collections were to be divided between 
Education, Missions, and other objects of benevolence. 
To illustrate the spirit of the times, we have a letter 
from James Sewell concerning a meeting held in Spring- 
field. Effingham County. He says it is a piney-woods 
village, and none the worse for that. He expected to 
get two or three hundred dollars. The preacher in 
charge arose after the sermon and said he was a poor 
man, but he owed all he had to God and Methodism. 
He said his mite was small, but they might put him 
down for twenty dollars, and his wife for five. Then 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



339 



Father G. arose and gave $120. Then Father Myers 
gave $100, and by the time the meeting was concluded 
they had $1,000. 

On the Oglethorpe Circuit the collection amounted 
to $1,007.25 ; Covington $2,700 ; Leon Circuit, Florida, 
$1,300, and $3,600 in Burke. Nor was this all the liber- 
ality shown by the people, and it is somewhat difficult 
to account for it. The great financial crisis was on the 
country, and the leading men of the cities were bank- 
rupt ; but it may be the tidal wave had not as yet 
readied the country places with its full volume. Even 
the missionary collection at Eatonton amounted to 
$1,200 during the conference session. 

There were wonderful revivals throughout the State. 
In Columbus 250 joined the Church. In Macon 90 
united with it on one Sabbath. 250 on the Greensboro 
Circuit ; 206 at a camp-meeting in Burke. The year 
1839 was a royal year for Georgia Methodism. 

The conference met in Augusta, Dec. 11, 1839, Bisliop 
Morris again presiding. Bishop Roberts was to have 
presided, but his health was too feeble for him to fulfil 
his original intention, and Bishop Morris came in his 
stead. Augusta had just passed the most terrible year 
in her historj', when the yellow fever raged with unpre- 
cedented fury. The session does not seem to have been 
one of special interest. The ordinary questions were 
asked and answered, and the educational interest of the 
Church received its proper share of attention. 

Twenty-two were received on trial. Richard Lane, 
was one ; after years of usefulness in Georgia, he re- 
moved to Texas and served the East Texas Conference 
efticiently for some years, and is now superannuated. 

Alexander Means, who also joined the conference, 



340 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



was already superintendent of the Manual Labor School. 
He was at this time a young physician. He had entered 
Georgia a teacher, and had been for several years a local 
preacher of gi-eat zeal and usefulness. He had devoted 
himself with much ardor to science, and when the Man- 
ual Labor School was organized, he was selected as its 
superintendent. He has been more or less connected 
with the educational interests of the Church from that 
day to this. 

Dr. Means is so well known and so generally beloved, 
that neither a sketch of his life nor a testimonial to his 
worth are needful in this history, even if we were per- 
mitted by the rule we have adopted to give it. His la- 
bors are so intimately connected with the educational 
interests of the Church in Georgia, that we defer all no- 
tice of them to that chapter. 

W. M. Crumley began his life-work as a travelling 
preacher this j'ear. He was admitted on trial and ap- 
pointed to Madison County, Florida. Leaving the bleak 
mountains of Habersham County, in Georgia, while yet 
the January snows were on the ground, he made his 
way over the muddy hills of Middle Georgia into the 
Wire-Grass Country. Here he was forced to swim creeks, 
to travel for almost whole days through the wide sloughs 
of that flat country. At last he reached his circuit. 
The people had fled to the block-houses, and those who 
were at home were expecting every moment to be forced 
again into these shelters. He travelled from block-house 
to block-house. There was, of course, nothing like church 
organization, and the only support accorded to the 
preacher was that which the people offered without 
solicitation. He was compelled to travel through long 
♦stretches of almost uninhabited pine- woods, to find a 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 17S5-1S65. 



341 



home in the cabin of some adventurous stock-raiser, 
or, in the hummock countrv, to find shelter with some 
planter, whom neither exile from society nor tlie dread 
of Indians could force from his rich cotton-fields. To 
bear all this exposure, and, worse tlian this, to have a 
gentle, loving wife to submit to it, was the introduction 
of this young and timid itinerant to his work. He had 
left his only child, a little girl, with her grandmother in 
Habersham, and brought only his young wife with him. 
The tender parents were very anxious about their child. 
He had one dollar left when he reached Florida. He 
found a f aniil}^ almost starving. The husband had been 
killed by the Indians, and the widow and children were 
without bread. He gave them his last cent. 

In Madison he went to the post-office and found a 
letter from his kins-people concerning tidings from his 
child — but alas ! the postage. It was twenty-five cents, 
and he did not have a farthing. Sadly he returned the 
letter to the postmaster, and went to prayer-meeting. 
After it was over, the owner of the solitary candle took 
it up, and found in the candlestick a five-dollar note. 
As no one claimed it, he gave it to the preacher. 

The work on which young Crumley was, had to be 
marked out. The Indians still lurked in the swamps, 
and often, as he tracked his way through the forests, he 
would see where the bullet of an Indian had spilled the 
blood of a foe. Once he found that the family with 
which he had hoped to spend the night had fled to the 
block-house six miles away, and it was already dark. At 
the OTcat hazard of beino; shot bv the Indians, or mis- 
taken in the dark by the whites as an Indian and shot 
by them, he reached the fort and succeeded in making 
himself known. He passed, however, through the year 



342 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



safely, and was instrumental in the conversion of many 
souls. 

li. H. Ilowren, who was also in Florida, tells his own 
story tlius : 

" It was during the Indian war, when the torch, toma- 
hawk, and rilie were doing their deadly work in this 
country. My work was mainly with the soldiers and 
with citizens clustered together under stockade protec- 
tion. I knew that I was every day exposed to sudden 
and violent death ; but the divine promise sustained me, 
' Lo ! I am with you alway, even unto the end of the 
w^orld.' On one occasion, while holding a protracted 
meeting near Newnanville, we were surrounded by sev- 
enty-five Indian waiTiors, who withdrew without inter- 
fering with us at all. We learned afterwards that their 
intention was to make an attack upon us, but, seeing 
such an unusual stir among the people, they became 
alarmed and withdrew. During one of our night ser- 
vices they climbed into the pines around the house, in- 
tending to fire upon us, not being able to do so from the 
ground, owing to the stockade. Fortunately, we heard 
the signal given for firing, and ran into the body of the 
house and escaped. One of our local preachers, brother 
McCray, was shot from his horse and killed while re- 
turning from one of his appointments, Sabbath after- 
noon. He was in company with a Mr. McNeil, who 
escaped with four balls through his clothes and two in 
his horse ; the noble animal, though badly wounded, 
sprang forward and soon bore his rider beyond the 
reach of danger. A little boy, twelve years old, riding 
a little behind, wheeled his pony and took the other end 
of the road — a large Indian jumping in the road nearly 
opposite the boy. The race was nearly equal for a 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-18G5. 



343 



hundred yards or more, the savage makuig several 
reaches for the pony's bridle ; but, at length, the lad 
outstripped him and escaped in safety to the fort. Bro. 
McCray was talking to his unconverted friend on the 
subject of religion, when the guns fired. How literally 
he realized the poet's hope : 

' Happy if with my latest breath, 
I may but gasp His name ; 
Preach Him to all, and cry in death, 
Behold ! behold the Lamb ! ' " 

There were some changes made in the districts. The 
Savannah District ceased to be, and the two cities were 
placed in the Augusta District. There was a mission dis- 
trict, called the Buck River District, to which James E. 
Godfrey was sent. Robert A. Steele took the St. 
Mary's District and went down into Florida, and Wm. 
Chaise the Jacksonville District, composed of the 
wildest part of the Wire Grass Country. Robert A. 
Steele, Presiding Elder of the St. Mary's District, was a 
most saintly young man. He had been converted in 
early life, and when he w^as twenty-eight years old 
he abandoned the medical profession for the pulpit. 
He was a man of most devoted missionary spirit, and 
sought to go to fields from which others shrank. He 
w^as a feeble man, and suffered much in his work, but 
he labored on, and with much success. He walked 
with God. He was fully consecrated to His service and 
had the testimony that he pleased Him. God's love 
and presence was sweetly manifest to him in his last 
hours, and when he was told his end was nigh, he 
emphatically replied, " Thank God." He died in peace, 
in February, 1844, at about forty years of age. 



344 



HISTORY OP METHODISM 



W. W. Griffin, who was admitted at this conference, 
was one of those simple-hearted, earnest, though not 
gifted men, who do the work assigned to them faith- 
fullj, and who always do much more than those WTjnld 
think who merely see the external. Without learning or 
eloquence, their simple fervor, their pure lives do more 
than learning or eloquence without them can do. lie 
suffered much in the last years of his life, but died in 
the faith. 

During this year Jeremiah Norman died. His mind 
became affected before his deatli, and we have no me- 
moir of him in the minutes. He was a gifted, pious, 
lonely man. He lived unmarried, and seems to have 
had none near of kin to him in this land. He was a 
man of much more than usual mind, graces, and useful- 
ness. 

The new Fort Gaines District, including all that sec- 
tion south of Fort Valley and lying west of Houston 
and Pulaski to the Florida line, was laid out and James 
B. Payne was placed upon it. The home of the 
preacher was in Perry. He went eastward to the 
Ocmulgee River, and westward to the Chattahoochee, 
and thence to Florida. A part of this country, w^hich 
w^as afterwards known as the richest in Georgia, was just 
being settled. The felling of the forest and the decay 
of the timbers had brought on a malarial fever which 
swept like a pestilence ; often the presiding elder would 
ride a whole day and find a sick family in every home. 
During the year there w^as good work done, and the 
presiding elder was returned the next year. It would 
be telling simply the oft-told story to tell of the 
hardships of the preachers and the presiding elders in 
this field. All of them submitted to privations ; many 



m GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



345 



A them were sick, and oftentimes one of the band of 
evangelists fell asleep in the home of strangers. Yet 
another came forward and took his vacated place. The 
presiding elder had his horse stolen dnring the year, 
but escaped with no other injury than the one to his 
slender purse. 

Sidney M. Smith was on the Carrollton Mission, 
lie was eminently useful, and many souls were con- 
verted under his ministry. Jno. W. Yai'brough and 
James B. Jackson were to«:ether on the laro-e Marietta 
Mission, and the senior preacher wrote cheeringly of the 
success Vvdiich had attended their labors. In Macon 
there was a great revival; in Milledgeville the best 
meeting that that city liad known since 1827. 

At this conference the deleo-ates were elected to the 
general conference which met in Baltimore in May of 
the next year, 1839. The Georgia delegation consisted 
of six: Sam'l K. Hodges, Lovick Pierce, Ignatius A. 
Few, Wm. J. Parks, Elijah Sinclair, and Geo. F. Pierce. 
The conference seems to have been an unimportant one, 
and though many memorials were presented from New 
England upon the slavery question, yet the temper of 
the body was so mild and conservative as to justify the 
hope that a division of the Church was yet in the far 
distance. On an appeal from Missouri, the conference 
went so far against the violent opposition of the New 
England delegation as to pass a resolution that the 
testimony of colored witnesses was not to be received in 
those States where it was not recognized in courts of law. 
This resolution was passed, and when Dr. W. A. Smith 
proposed to reconsider tlie motion and adopt a substi- 
tute, and give to conferences the privilege of making 
exceptions, the conference refused to adopt the substi- 
15^ 



346 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



tiite. When the case of the Jfatchez Church was 
brought before the conference, E. li. Ames, the present 
Bishop, proposed to be one of a hundred to raise 
$1,000 for the relief of these afflicted Southern people. 
One can but be impressed with the tone of modera- 
tioUj the spirit of brotherhood, which characterized the 
assembl}'. Who could have predicted that the next 
general conference would have been the last in which 
Northern men and Southern should sit together as 
representatives of one great body ? But the leaven was 
at work which was to leaven the whole body. 

The Georgia Conference enters upon the second 
decade of its existence. Great changes had taken place 
in this period, and great improvements had been made. 
At no time had the Church been more prosperous. An 
abundance of laborers were in the field, the most of 
them raised up in the State by Methodism herself. 
There was a disposition to abandon that which had 
become unsuited to the times, and adapt the machinery 
of the Church to present needs. At last the whole of 
Georgia was occupied by the preachers. The Red man 
had sadly left his beautiful hunting grounds, and had 
gone reluctantly to the far West. Large numbers of 
new settlers had immigrated into Georgia, and the fer- 
tile lands were being rapidly filled up. The popula- 
tion of the State had increased from 516,823 to 691,- 
392. The membership of the Church from 20,585 to 
27,298 whites, and from 4,500 colored to 8,358. The 
five districts with seventy-six preachers had grown to 
eight districts, with one hundred and eleven preachers. 
The collections had almost entirely originated during 
this period, and there had been raised in the State dur- 
ing this last year $5,030.87 for missions, and in one 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



347 



year $2,599, for superaniniated preachers, their widows 
and orphans. The centenary collection had been 
very liberal. The colleges and manual labor school 
had sprung into being, and the subscription to them 
had amounted to over $100,000. The social features of 
the State had undergone l)ut little change, but that 
was for the better. A great financial crisis had come, 
and still its effect was felt all over the State, but yet 
the Church had prospered. Most of the very large 
circuits of the periods before, had given way, and the 
circuits were now comparatively small, though still much 
too large for effective working. A large number of the 
leadino; men of the Church in 1830, were no lonwr 
present. Andrew was a Bishop ; Howard, Poj^e, Bellah, 
Chappell, Darley, Winn, and Pournell were dead. 
Warwick, Sneed, Turner, were superannuated. Jesse 
Boring after years of usefulness had broken down, and 
was forced to take light work, but new, and enterpris- 
ing, and gifted men were in their places. Lovick 
Pierce, Thomas Samford, Wm. Arnold, and Samuel 
K. Hodges, of the old line, remained in the field, but 
Talley, Parks, Glenn, Geo. F. Pierce, Payne, Anthony, 
Key, Lewis, Mann, were now among the leading working- 
men in the conference. While Jno. W. Tarsbi'ough, 
G. J. Pearce, P. P. Smith, Jno. C. Simmons, M. H. 
White, younger men, were doing the hard frontier work, 
tliat was demanded by the new country, which had 
been occupied. Up to this time, Georgia had never 
been without a frontier, and the Georgia Conference 
had held no session without appointing some of its 
members to the wilderness, and the opening of the 
Creek and Cherokee lands in Georgia, and of the whole 
of Florida to settlement had called for an unusual 



348 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



amount of this work. Forests were being cut down, 
new villages being built, and tlie times demanded 
energy and enterprise. It has been the glory of Meth- 
odism that her sons have never shrunk from the hard- 
ships of a new country, and that she has always been 
among the first in the newly opened land. It is this 
which has given her so strong a hold on the affections 
of the people. She did not wait for civilization to 
prepare the way for the Church, ])ut the Church, 
going firstj secured the blessings of refined life to the 
people. 

The work was still hard. The circuits had not as yet 
provided for the comfort of the preachers by providing 
parsonages. Many of the married had homes, and some 
of them were necessarily remote from their w^ork, and 
while the size of the circuit was reduced, the number of 
new appointments called for as much service from the 
preachers. Augusta, Savannah, Milledgeville, iVthens, 
Columbus, Macon, Washington, are the only stations. 
La Grange and West Point a station together, and the 
rest of the State was provided with only circuit preach- 
ing. While there was growth in the country, in the 
towns the advance was not rapid. The older towns of 
the State had been much depleted to supply the newer. 
Greens])oro had almost emptied itself into the lap of 
Columbus and La Grange, and Eatonton and Clinton 
into Macon, and so with the older counties. The camp- 
meetings were still in vigorous existence, though the 
protracted meetings in many of the- country churches 
rendered them less a necessity. The people were better 
educated, and so were the preachers. Mercer Univer- 
sity, Franklin College, and Emory, were well patronized, 
and there Avere high schools over the whole State. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



349 



The land had been well prepared, and the seed well 
sown. The hiborers were toiling for a richer harvest, 
and the next decade will show ^ill greater advancement. 

The next conference met in Macon, January 20, 1841 , 
Bishop Andrew, presiding. 

Twenty-five were admitted on trial; among them 
was Andrew Neese, who died in 1856, after sixteen 
years of hard and valuable work. He was a man of 
devoted piety, consecrated to his ministry ; acceptable 
and useful, wherever he went ; plain, pointed, and scrip- 
tural in his jjreaching ; gentle and affable in his man- 
ners. He was stricken with apoplexy, and had only 
one interval of consciousness; while it continued he re- 
peated almost the whole of the twenty -first of Eevela- 
tion. 

George Bright, an earnest, gifted young man, was 
another of the class. He died of yellow fever, in Key 
West, in 1874; had travelledfor nearly thirty-four years. 
George Bright was a striking character. He was pos- 
sessed of many more than ordinary gifts. He was a 
born controversialist. Other men may combat what 
they believe to be error, because they are forced into 
the field ; but he delighted in the fray. He w^as for 
many years on those charges where he met the most re- 
pulsive forms of Calvinism in their practical influence, 
and when church exclusiveness was the boldest in its 
claims, and he had made himself a master of the ques- 
tions at issue, and was ready to defend Arminius or at- 
tack Calvin, at any moment, and he did the work with 
a zest. He was necessarily a combatant, and fought 
without malice ; but those who did not know him well, 
attributed to bad temper what was really due to conscien- 
tious conviction. His health failed him in the regular 



350 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



work, and he entered the school-room. He went from 
Geoi-gia to Missouri, but here his health failed him 
again, and after a few years beyond the Mississippi, 
he returned to Georgia, was transferred to the Florida 
Conference, was sent to Key "West. Here he died in 
peace. George Bright was as gnarled and knotty as 
a live oak, but like a live oak, he had a great, sound 
heart. 

Wm. J. Sassnett was another admitted on trial. He 
was the grandson of Philip Turner, one of the first 
Methodists in Sparta, and the youngest son of his 
daughter, Ehoda Sassnett. He returned from the col- 
lege at Midway, and began to study law with Judge 
Sayre. He was in the Church, but was not a Christian. 
A severe attack of sickness that fall brought him to 
Christ, and he promised God that if he spared his life, 
he would preach the Gospel. He sent for Dr. Pendle- 
ton, his attending physician, and told him what he felt 
to be his duty. When his family learned his purpose, 
he met with very fierce opposition from them, and his 
father firmly refused to assist his gifted boy in his mad 
course. 

Hard}^ C. Culver, one of nature's noblemen, offered 
him a horse and money to start with. When, however, 
the father saw his son's determination, lie relented, and 
consented that he should do as he wished. Ten years 
afterwards the father was converted, and died in the 
faith of the Gospel.* The determined and consecrated 
young man presented himself as an applicant for ad- 
mission into the conference, and was admitted. After 
one apj)ointment in Georgia, he was transferred to 



* Dr. Pendleton. 



m GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-18G5. 



351 



Alabama. He was liiglily gifted, and the prospect of 
greatest usefulness spread out before him, when he was 
attacked by acute rheumatism, and after the disease 
left him, his handsome and manly form '"^^as bent 
almost double. He did not, however, complain nor 
despond, but entered the hall of the college professor. 
He was Professor at Oxford, the President of the La 
Grange Female College, and then President of the East 
Alabama University, at Auburn. The war closed this 
institution, and he returned to his farm in Hancock 
County, Ga. Here he remained until 1865, when, in 
the vigor of his life and the zenith of his fame, he died 
in the faith. He was delirious a part of the time of 
his sickness, and as his delirium passed away, he said : 
^^Have I said anything in my delirium a Christian min- 
ister ought not to have said ? " They told him no. He 
answered : " Thank God." 

The American continent has produced few men who 
had more mind than Wm. J. Sassnett. He was a broad, 
bold thinkei*; he wrote with great readiness, and wrote 
much ; he preached with great power and eloquence. 
His brethren of the Alabama Conference say of him : 
" Though enfeebled in body by disease, he was, never- 
theless, a great worker. He never shrank from respon- 
sibility nor avoided labor. As a preachei*, his gifts 
were far above ordinary. Kind in heart, genial in 
manner, he was the joy of his friends, and the comfort 
of all about him. Truly a great man in Israel has 
fallen." 

Dr. Sassnett was not only a fine preacher, but he was 
an author of no mean ability. One of those men, how- 
ever, whose bold opinions and whose elaborate discus- 
sions attract only a small circle of thinking men to him. 



352 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



There is no page in his published works but which is 
filled with striking thoughts. He wrote, it may be, 
too rapidly, and his thought speculations were not, per- 
haps, always profitable, but he was by nature a philoso- 
pher, and his mind very speculative, and he thought 
broadly, spoke bravely, on all subjects of public inter- 
est. His views on common school education, on sla- 
ver}^, on progress in the Church, and on political ques- 
tions were decided, and liis defence of them a very 
strong one. As far as we can see, he died too early, 
but God knows best. 

At this session Edward H. Myers began his life-work. 
He was born in New York and at this time was twenty- 
five years old. His motlier was a saintly woman and he 
became in early life a Christian. He was so gifted that 
it was determined by those who knew him that he should . 
be highly educated, and he was graduated at Randolph, 
Macon College. On returning from college he taught 
school a few years, and then in the brightness of his young 
manhood entered the conference. He soon gained high 
place both as a preacher and as a writer. When the 
Wesley an Female College was reorganized, he was invited 
to a professorship in it, and afterwards to its presidency, 
and went thence to Charleston to edit the South Carolina 
Advocate, He remained an editor for seventeen years, 
and was tlien made President of the Wesleyan Female 
College for a second time. He was always fond of the 
work of preaching and anxious to return to the pastoral 
field. He resigned his place in Macon and was appoint- 
ed to Trinity Church in Savannah. He entered upon 
his labors with great zeal and prosecuted them with 
ability. Wlien the important commission to settle ques- 
tions between the two great branches of Methodism in 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



353 



America was selected, he was appointed oi^ of tlie com- 
missioners. After the happy result of it, he was abid- 
ing for a while in the North, when the fearful news 
reached him that Savamiah was visited again by the 
terrible yellow fever. To return was almost certain 
death, but he did not hesitate. He hurried home, he 
threw himself into the midst of the pestilence, he w^as 
taken with the fever, in a few hours it was announced 
to him that he must die ; he calmly said he was ready 
and had been for a long time, and shortly afterward 
calmly and peacefully died. He died on the 26th Sep- 
tember, 1876. 

Of the intellect and Christian character of Dr. Myers 
it is difficult to speak too highly. He was an accurate 
scholar, a man who thought much and wrote elegantly ; 
as a preacher he had few equals. He despised all kinds 
of pretence and always knew well what he claimed to 
know at all. He was a man of the sternest integrity ; 
strictly truthful in act or word, brave enough for any 
deed, he was one of those upon whom all knew when to 
rely. Conscious of his own sincerity of purpose, des- 
pising all duplicity, he never sought to curry favor, but 
rather scorned it. Those who knew him best, honored 
him most. Many knew of the might of his intellect, 
but only his friends knew how gentle and tender was 
his heart. His escutcheon was witliout a blot. From 
early boyhood to the day he died a martyr to duty, he 
had gone bravely and unswervingly on. He left an in- 
teresting family. One of his sons, the Eev. Herbert 
Myers, is President of a female college in Tennessee, 
and member of the Holston Conference. His death, to 
all Methodism, was a common grief. 

During this year four members of the conference had 



354 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



died : Samuel K. Hodges, Smith Crandall, Jeremiah 
Freeman, and James Hutto. 

Of Hodges' early life we Iiave spoken and of his im- 
portant labors. He is represented to have been an 
amiable man, a pious Christian, and an indefatigable 
worker. When assured that his hour was come he said 
he had been preparing for death for thirty years, and 
was not afraid to die. He hved faithfully and died 
happily. 

Jeremiah Freeman had travelled for several years, 
then located, but as soon as his health permitted re-en- 
tered the work in which he died. His last days were 
peculiarly distinguished for the manifestation of the 
presence of God and the blessedness of religion. 

James Hutto, whom we have often seen as occupying 
posts of trial and danger, and who was the subject of 
many afflictions, died in peace. 

The conference collections of this year attest the 
general financial depression, since only $928 was 
raised for the conference collection. The amount 
raised for missions is not reported in the printed minutes. 

The districts remain unchanged, save that a small 
district is laid out in Florida, known as the Newnans- 
ville, and Jno. L. Jerry, who had been doing hard work 
in that section for many years, w^as placed upon it. 
Kobert A. Steele was placed on the St. Mary's District. 
There was an increase reported at this conference of 
3,459 white, and 1,468 colored members. The Wat- 
kinsville Circuit alone increased its membership from 
693 to 1,155. 

The succeeding conference met in Milledgeville, 
January 6, 1842, Bishop Waugh presiding. There 
were thirteen admitted on trial. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



355 



W. H. Evans was admitted on trial tliis year. He 
was born in Wilkes County, in 1814, was the son of a 
Methodist preacher, and the younger brother of James 
E. Evans, who had been for over ten years in the con- 
ference. He had been a preacher for nine years before 
he entered the work. He did effective work for thirty 
years, and then was called away. He had gathered his 
friends around him at the commencement at Oxford, 
when he was suddenly stricken by apoplexy, and pain- 
lessly expired. Wm. H. Evans was one of the most 
useful men the Georgia Conference ever received into 
its membership, and one of the best-beloved. He had 
travelled over a large part of Upper Georgia on hard 
circuits, and on hard stations and hard districts, and his 
work was always well done. Souls were converted and 
the Church was built up wherever he went. He was 
not a brilliant man, but he was a remarkably sensible 
one, and withal a man of fine information, and of broad 
and liberal views. He impressed all men with a sense 
of his deep and earnest piety, and a remarkable success 
always attended his labors. He had the confidence of 
his brethren as few men had it, and his death was uni- 
versally regretted. Sampson J. Turner, who aftei-ward 
appears under the name Jackson P. Turner, was ad- 
mitted on trial this year. He was only eighteen j^ears 
of age. He had a strong mind, almost entirely uncul- 
tivated, when he began his work, but which he most 
diligently improved by hard study. He became a good 
English s(iholar, and had a fair knowledge of the ele- 
ments of Latin and Greek. He was a good thinker, 
and a bold writer. He did not hesitate to attack 
the views of any man, however great his age or 
elevated his place. He soon rose to high position, 



356 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



and when only thirty-one years old was called from 
earth. 

In the Florida District, on which Peyton P. Smith 
was presiding elder, there were three circuits in Geor- 
gia : Thomasville, Bainbridge, and Troupville. We 
have already spoken of the Troupville Circuit, which 
covered a territory now equal to a district, embracing 
in its boundary Clinch, Lowndes, Echols, a part of Ber- 
rien, and all of Brooks Counties. Decatur and Thomas 
Counties were served from Florida, and were respect- 
ively in the Monticello and Gadsden Circuits. During 
this year they were made into separate circuits. A church 
had been built in Thomasville during the year 1840. 
The county of Thomas was laid out in 1825, and 
Thomasville was settled in 1826. It was very remote 
fi'om the Atlantic coast, and did its business through 
the port of St. Mark, in Florida. It had some very fine 
country tributary to it, but these lands were mostly 
taken up by large planters, and cultivated by large 
bodies of slaves. The poorer lands were settled by 
poor people, mostly stock-raisers. Thomasville, though 
the chief town in all the country, was a small town, and 
as late as 1851 had a population, according to White,* 
of only 500. The church was an exceedingly plain 
building, and after Thomasville had grown to be a 
place of considerable size, and was a station of some 
importance, it w^as still the only Methodist house of 
worship. It was finally replaced by a neat and attrac- 
tive church building. The first year it was separated 
from the Monticello Circuit ; it was left to be supplied. 
During this year James Woodie was in charge of it. 



'^White's Statistics, 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



357 



Decatur Couiitj, of which Bainbriclge was the county- 
site, presented the same features as Thomas. There 
were some xery fine lands, which attracted the rich and 
cultivated cotton-planter, and a large area of very poor 
pine-land, upon which the irrepressible cattle-raiser 
squatted and raised his cows. Bainbridge became be- 
fore many years a village of very considerable impor- 
tance, and has been for a long time a desirable small 
station. 

Quincy and Tallahassee were both stations, and were 
places of considerable importance, and to them the 
Georgia Conference sent its most gifted young men. 

We have mentioned that that noble man, John L. Jer- 
ry, to whom Florida owes so much, was on the Newnans- 
yille District. This was less a district to preside over 
than one to organize. The Seminoles, who had held 
such sway in the Peninsula, w^ere at last driven into the 
remote South, beyond Lake Okechabee, and the refugees 
returned, and Jerry came with them from Middle Florida, 
where he had been living, to reorganize the Church. 
He had only three circuits. The next yeai* they were 
all returned to the Florida District, since his health had 
so given way as to be unable to continue in their charge. 
There was no further attempt to reoi-ganize the work in 
East Florida until 1844. 

During this year the CuUoden Circuit appears for the 
first time. It was the western part of the Forsyth Cir- 
cuit, and included a part of Monroe and a part of Craw- 
ford County. In this part of Monroe toward the Flint 
River there is a very fertile and beautiful section of 
country. It early attracted a full settlement of most 
excellent people. It was too remote from the county 
town for the advantage of the country academies, and a 



358 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



school village was settled at Culloden. The Eev. John 
Darby established there a female school of high grade. 
This drew a large number of intelligent and wealthy 
people to the village, which was soon one of the most 
flourishing in the State. The Eev. Alex. Speer, Rev. 
N. Ousley, Rev. F. Cook and several other local preach- 
ers of high character and of excellent gifts settled tliere. 
About 1836 a brick church was built. This was 
the second church of the kind in the State among the 
Methodists, and was the most elegant. Among the 
Methodists of Culloden, to whom we have already 
alluded, was Frances Cook, a local preacher. He was a 
South Carolinian, and had joined the Society, as the 
Church was then called, in the home of the Rev. Isaac 
Smith, when he was a boy of fourteen years old. He 
lived until after his second marriage in Camden, S. C, 
and was a steward in the Church. His house w^as the 
home of the stationed preacher. His last most excellent 
w^ife was a sister of Dr. W. H. Ellisou, and when her 
father moved to Talbot County, in Georgia, Brother 
Cook was influenced to come also. He did so, and set- 
tled in Harris County. After Culloden offered such 
attractions to families he came to that village and settled 
there. He was an exhorter, and aspired to no higher 
place ; but his brethren insisted on his taking license as 
a local preacher. He did so, and made full proof of his 
ministry. Few men have done more good. No man 
ever enjoyed more fully the confidence of his neighbors. 
His home was the home of the weary itinerant, and 
after Culloden was made a circuit, and a parsonage was 
established there, his wife was the tender guardian of 
the preacher's family. His means w^ere ample, and his 
liberab'ty was in proportion to his means. He tented 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



359 



regularly at two camp-mee-tings, preached as frequently 
as opportunity was afforded, raised his children for the 
Church, saw them all early in its fold, lived to see two 
of his sons travelling preachers, and others of them offi- 
cial members of the Chnrch of his love, buried his loving 
and saintly wife, and then, with a glorious triumph like 
the translation of Elijah, gathered up his feet and passed 
to the Father's house above. 

Newdaygate Ousley, another local preacher of Cullo- 
den, was a most excellent and useful man. He had 
entered upon a Christian life in his boyhood, and was a 
licensed preacher when very young. He was a man of 
more than ordinary amiability, and of fine capacity as a 
preacher. The Rev. N. B. Ousley, a useful member of 
the South Georgia Conference, is his son, and several of 
bis children are efficient members of the Church in that 
conference. 

James H. Mays was another lay member of that cir- 
cuit. He was from Lincoln County, and the brotlier-in- 
law of James E. Evans. Plain, simple-hearted, he was 
liberal and enterprising. He spent the last years of his 
life in the town of Forsyth, where he was regarded as a 
pillar in the Church, and died in great peace. 

Uncle Jack Lester was another most useful man on 
that circuit. When he was a young man, passing 
through North Carolina, he casually went to a Metho- 
dist church. There was a love-feast, and Henry B. 
Howard, the brother of John Llow^ard, told of how ho 
had been converted from deism to Christianity through 
the life and death of a faithful Christian slave. The 
recital of this experience made a deep impression on 
the young stranger, and he came to Georgia a converted 
man. Few men have been more devoted, few men more 



360 



HISTOHY OF METHODISM 



useful as simple laymen, tlian was uncle Jack Lester. 
This circuit had a lai'ge membership from its organiza- 
tion of over 1,000 white and colored members. 

Benjamin W. Clark was admitted into this confer- 
ence. He had been a local preacher for some years. 
His early life had been exceedingly reckless. He was 
a drunkard and one w^io was exceedingly violent when 
he was drunk. His wife had often fled from him. She 
was a devoted Methodist, and had often prayed for him, 
much to his annoyance. He went to a camp-meeting 
and was happily converted. As he returned home, and 
as he came in sight of the house, the thought of the 
delight the news would bring her, caused him to shout 
for joy. She heard him, and supposing he had returned 
as of yore, made ready for flight, but he succeeded in 
arresting her and she joined him in praising the good 
Lord for his mercy. He did not remain many years iji 
the travelling connection, but located and woj'ked 
efficiently as a local preacher. He never failed to tell 
his experience and he never failed to move a congrega- 
tion when he did. 

During the year there was $6,055 raised for missions 
and $1,748 for the conference collection. Some of the 
districts change their presidents. William J. Parks re- 
lieves John W. Glenn from the arduous labors of the 
Cherokee District, "Willis D. Mathews took the Colum- 
bus District, left vacant by the death of Samuel K. 
Hodges. Ivy F. Steagall was on the Fort Gaines and 
Thomas C. Benning is on the Florida District, and 
Leonard C. Peek on the St. Mary's. Lovick Pierce 
w^as this year transferred to Alabama and stationed in 
Monto-omerv. Geor2:e F. Pierce retired from the col- 
lege presidency and returned to the work of his choice 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



3G1 



by taking charge of the Macon Church. There was but 
little change in the arrangement of the work. 

W, M. Crumley, after a year in Florida, returned 
with his family to Upper Georgia and was sent to the 
most remote south-east to the Satilla plantations. The 
same physical obstacles he met the year before are 
again overcome, and he reached his work to find a 
-vacant, single-room house on a plantation. He stripped 
the long moss from the trees and made his mattresses, 
and with such furniture as he could manufacture and 
such food as he could procure, he provided for his 
household, and went from one plantation to another 
teaching the poor negroes the way of life. 

E. H. Myers w^as appointed to Cumberland Island, 
but was relieved from the appointment that he might 
take the assistant pastorship of Savannah with Rev. 
James E. Evans. 

There were some gracious revivals during the year. 
Josiah Lewis writes from the Sparta Circuit of a great 
work in Hancock, and says : Thei'e are some circum- 
stances worthy of remark connected with the revival. 
A father had the happiness to witness the conversion of 
five of his children. It looked like distracting the old 
man, but he bore it like a Christian. The devil got up 
a dance ; but the fiddler, dancers, and all, were con- 
verted." 

At Talbotton 106 were cony-erted, and 250 were added 
to the Church on the Marietta Mission. 

The conference of 1S43 met in Savaimah, January 
18th. Bishop Andrew was to preside, but did not reach 
i the conference at the beoinnino; of the session, and W. 
' J. Parks, at his appointment, was president j^ro tern. 

Silas Griffin, of Oglethorpe County, had left §4,096.89, 
16 



362 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



which was added to the vested funds of Aid Society, 
and W. J. Parks was made the Special Agent of the 
Conference to see after its unsettled business in various 
parts of the State. This business was to see after sun- 
dry tracts of land, which, from time to time, had been 
left to the Conference, but which had chiefly been given 
by the bequest of Thomas Grant, made before the con- 
ferences divided. 

Thirteen were admitted on trial. One of these was 
Jacob R. Danforth. He was from Augusta, and his 
family was one of the oldest Methodist families in the 
State. He had been pious from his youth, had fine 
mind, and entered and graduated at Emory College, 
He was really a very gifted man, wrote beautifully, and 
was a declaimer of very high order. 

He had, however, one mental defect which ruined all. 
He never knew when to stop. He was perfectly oblivi- 
ous to the lapse of time. He would rise in the pulpit, 
and being enthused with some brilliant imagination, 
he would present one glowing picture after another for 
three hours at a time. Kebuke him for it, and he would 
receive the rebuke with a gentle smile, and do the same 
the next Sabbath. He was called upon to preach one: 
night at a camp-meeting. After he had been preaching 
for some time, the angry thunders began to mutter 
threateningly, and the larger part of the congregation 
fled to the tents, but the preacher preached on. The; 
storm burst ; all who could get away were gone ; but 
the preacher preached on. The storm ceased ; he was 
preaching still. At last, after ten o^clock, he ceased, 
but not before he was almost alone. He was as guileless, 
as gentle, as loving as a child, and but for some defects: 
in his mental make up, vv^ould have been one of the most: 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1805. 



3G3 



brilliant men in the land. After a qniet, nsefnl, and 
happy life, he died in Macon a few years ago. 

The year 1843 seems to have been an uneventful one 
in the Church. The work was well manned, and the 
tield well worked, and there was prosperity; 1,763 
whites, and 1,200 blacks were the numbers gained during 
the year. This does not represent the true increase, for 
Georgia was constantly losing by emigration. The 
conference collection amounted to $1,600, and that for 
missions $7,494. The next conference met in Co- 
lumbus, January 17, 1844, Bishop Soule presiding. 

There w^ere fourteen admitted on trial. Daniel Bird 
had died. The work undergoes few changes. The only 
important change was the enlargement of the Florida 
work by the re-establishment of the Newnansville Dis- 
trict, which extended into the remotest point of the 
peninsula of Florida. The Seminole had now been 
subjugated, and the scattered few of this unconquerable 
tribe who still remained in Florida had sought the deep 
recesses of the Everglades. Andrew J. Deavours was 
sent upon the Indian River Mission. Indian River is 
an inlet of the sea, in the remote south-east of the 
Florida peninsula. The climate is tropical, and the 
government had here a fort and station for the provis- 
ioning of the troops who were engaged in the war with 
the Indians. A few stray settlers had found their way 
into this country, and Andrew J. Deavours was sent to 
carry to them the glad tidings. On the w^estern side of 
the Peninsula was Jno. N. Miner. We may only conjec- 
ture, for they have not told of them, how great were 
the hardships, and how many the dangers met with, and 
how brave the heart needs be, which faced and endured 
them. Long uninhabited stretches of prairie, on which 



364 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



the cattle roamed, or wild sweeps of pine-forest, with 
now and then a settler's hut. It is the same old story of 
the pioneer preacher, which Methodism has so often to 
tell. 

The conference was now very large. There were 
nine large districts stretching from the Blue Ridge to 
Key West, and fj*om the Savannah to the Chatfahoo- 
chee ; 135 preachers in • active work, beside eighteen 
who were superannuated. It was evident that the con- 
ference was too large for effective work, and at this ses- 
sion a resolution was carried, to petition the general 
conference to divide the Georgia Conference into two 
parts, the Southern part to be known as the Florida. 
This, as we will see, was done. 

The conference collection during the year amounted 
to $1,600, while that for missions reached $7,494.48, 
The amount the conference was able to pay upon the 
claims partly held upon it, was only about forty-five per 
cent. 

Key West now appears for the first time as an ap- 
pointment, and was left to be supplied. From that 
day to this, it has been mentioned annually in the 
minutes. 

Within sixty miles of Cuba, almost in the tropics, 
immediately on the line of travel from the Gulf cities 
to the Atlantic coast, is this island. It is surrounded 
by coral reefs, which, rising out the waves, are known 
as keys, and becomes most important as the headquar- 
ters of the wrecking fleets, and as the port of the 
sponge gatherers. Quite a colony of Wesleyans from 
the Bahamas had settled there, and a preacher was sent 
to them, but little was done until 1846 when Simon P. 
Richardson was appointed to the station. The church 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 17S5-1S65. 



3G5 



the inhabitants of the island erected was swept away in 
a storm, and another, largely by his exertions and with 
aid from the East, was built. The church has con- 
tinued to increase, and there are now two charges on 
the island, besides a Cuba mission. The type of Meth- 
odism on the island is said to be more thoroughly Wes- 
ley an than perhaps in any other charge of the Southern 
Church, and Key West bids fair to be a most important 
point from which to direct the movements of evangeli- 
cal Christianity against Cuba, when, as will be the case 
in course of time, the barriers of Eomanism shall be 
broken down. 

Key West has had the services of the ablest men in 
the Florida Conference, and although sometimes visited 
by the yellow fever, has generally been healtliy, and is 
a most delightful charge. Bishop Wightnian in IST-t 
paid the island an Episcopal visit, to the mutual pleas- 
ure of the Bishop and the Church. 

The General Conference was to meet in New York, 
in May, and Geo. F. Pierce, Wm. J. Parks, Lovick 
Pierce, Jno. W. Glenn, James E. Evans, and A. B. 
Lono-street were elected deleo;ates. 

The abolition and anti-slavery excitement had been 
of increasing intensity. The ]\Iethodist Episcopal 
Church had early expressed its disapjDroval of slavery, 
and had as clearly expressed its op230sition to abolition- 
ism. In consequence of this position, taken so decidedly 
by the general conference, Orange Scott and the ex- 
treme abolition wing in Kew England, after the Gen- 
eral Conference of 1836, had seceded and formed the 
Wesleyan Methodist Church. The anti-slavery and 
abolition feeling, however, had grown rapidly in the 
West and in Isew England. Peculiar circumstances 



366 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



were now to bring the matter before the General Con- 
ference in a very trying shape. The Baltimore Confer- 
ence sent up an appeal case whicli w^oiild necessarily 
open the question, and Bishop Andrew was the inno- 
cent cause of increased excitement and ao-itation. His 
gentle Amelia died, and his second wife, an exceedingly 
lovely Christian woman, who had been a Mrs. Green- 
wood, of Greensboro, was a slaveholder. Bishop An- 
drew became by virtue of his marriage the nominal 
owner of her propei'ty. 

Years before this a friend of his had bequeathed to 
Jiis care a negro girl who, after her majority, was to 
take her choice between remaining as his slave, or going 
a free woman to Liberia ; she preferred to remain in 
Georgia, and she became nominally his property. Bishop 
Andrew did ]iot believe that slaveliolding in the South 
was sinful ; but, nevertheless, he had not acquired this 
property by purchase or regular inheritance. He was 
now denounced as a slaveholder, and the extremists of 
the Church w^ere in great distress at having a slave- 
holding Bishop. Before the conference met trouble 
was expected, bat the hope which the events of years 
before had justified, still filled the hearts of the South- 
ern members. The agitation soon commenced, and the 
debate w^as opened on the third day of the session on 
a memorial from the Providence Conference. Dr. 
Capers began the discussion by moving that the motion 
to refer should lie on the table. The memorial seems 
to have been very offensive to the South in its utter- 
ances, but yet it was referred to a committee. Ou the 
sixth day. Dr. W. A. Smith of Virginia opened the 
question again by an earnest and somewhat violent 
speech, a part of which was levelled against the conser- 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



3G7 



vatives, of whom he spoke iii no gentle terms. He 
wanted the conference to saj^ plainly what it meant. If 
slaveholding was a sin in the ejes of the Church, he 
wanted the conference to say so, or to let the question 
alone. The champions of each side were now fairly 
arrayed, but the grand question was to be discussed in 
the appeal of Francis A. Harding, of the Baltimore 
Conference. By marriage this brother had become 
possessed of a family of negroes, which he was unable 
to emancipate. He was suspended by a vote of his 
conference, and he now appealed. Dr. W. A. Smith 
appeared for him, the Rev. John A. Collins against him. 
They were both able in debate, and the feeling of each 
side was most intense. Harding's case was the more 
important from these facts: First, that the slaves were 
his wife's, not his own ; Second, he could not emanci- 
pate them in Maryland ; Third, that he offered if they 
wished it to send them to Africa. Yet while all this 
was not denied he had been suspended. The debate of 
the subject was very full and very able. Dr. Smith 
was a grand man on the forum, and his opponent had 
the reputation of being the most eloquent man in his 
conference. There was, however, no comparison be- 
tween them in reasoning power. Smith was a giant 
beside his opponent. Though the speeches of Dr. 
Smith were of the most conclusive character, and 
though few who read the account of the trial now will 
agree that Harding was suspended in accordance with 
disciplinary rights ; yet so intense was the feeling 
that, by a strict party vote, the appeal was not sus- 
tained. The true reason for this was behind. Another 
case involving the same questions was to come before 
the conference. This case had been prejudged. The 



3G8 



fflSTORY OF METHODISM 



victim was doomed before his trial, but the whole 
South through him was the object of attack. NeNer 
was there a deeper feeling of anxiety in the General 
Conference. The Southern members had already a 
clear indication of the sentiment of the conference. 
Olin, Durbin, Bangs, and others from the North, who 
were reluctant to see the Church torn apart, saw 
plainly what must result when the great question of the 
conference came up. Bishop Capers moved the ap- 
pointment of a committee of pacification. The speeches 
on this motion were very affecting. Dr. Olin's especially. 
Each party deprecated division. The North did not 
want division, it wanted slavery condemned. The South 
did not want division, it wanted only the old position 
held. Other questions came up, and were settled, and 
on the 20th May John A. Collins, of the Baltimore Con- 
ference, who had been the stern prosecutor of Francis 
Harding, introduced the following resolution w^hich 
brought at last the main question befo]*e the conference. 

Whereas it is currently reported and generally un- 
derstood that one of the Bishops of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church has become connected with slavery, and 
whereas it is due to the General Conference to have a 
proper understanding of the matter ; therefore — 

Kesolved, that the Committee on the Episcopacy be 
instructed to ascertain the facts of the case, and report 
the result of their investigations to this body to-morrow 
morning." 

The subject was now before them. 

To many and to most of the conference the whole ques- 
tion was already seen to be settled ; no man of the South, 
however sanguine, could for a moment suppose that the 
rights of Bishop Andrew, or of the South, or the laws 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



369 



of the Churchy could withstand the current which was 
sweeping upon tliem. Tlie Church had a slaveholding 
Bishop. The General Conference was determined that 
no slaveholder should occupy the episcopal chair ; and 
before a word was spoken the case was settled. Our 
])urpose is to present the part that Georgia took in this 
discussion, and uot to give a full history of the debate; 
which may be found in Bedford's History, and in the 
General Conference journals published by the Northern 
Publishing House. 

On the 22d of May, Alfred Griffith, an old member 
of the Baltimore Conference, introduced a resolution 
requesting Bishop Andrew to resign. This he sup- 
ported by an earnest speech. He was followed by P. 
P. Sanford ; neither claimed that Bishop Andrew had 
violated any law of the Church, but the Northern 
member held that by his own act he had rendered him- 
self unacceptable to a part of the Church and there- 
fore he should retire. Dr. Winans followed in an 
exceedingly able and impressive speech, vindicating 
Bishop Andrew, showing that the North and West had 
determined when Bishop Andrew was elected, in 1832, 
to elect a slaveholder as Bishop, and attacking the doc- 
trine of expediency, as it was then presented. Dr. 
Lovick Pierce followed a Mr. Bowen^ who made a short 
reply to Dr. Winans. 

Dr. P. spoke of his long service in the General Con- 
ference, of his unwillingness to make speeches gene- 
rally, and said that he would remain silent now, but for 
fear lest the conference should think he was less de- 
cided than his younger and more ardent brethren. This 
was not the case. The conference had no right to make 
the request they proposed to make of Bishop xlndrew. 



370 



fflSTORY OF METHODISM 



For him to yield to this request was to yield a principle 
vital to the unity of the Cliui*ch. The doctrine of ex- 
pediency had been appealed to ; the Doctor said upon 
it : ^' Do that which is inexpedient for us, because it is 
expedient for you ? never, while the heavens are above 
the earth, let that be recorded on the journals of th© 
General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
Do you ask how the matter is to be met ? It is to be 
met by the conservation of principle and regard to the 
compromise laws of the Book of Discipline. Show 
your people that Bishop Andrew has violated any one 
of the established rules, and regulations of this church, 
and that he refused to conform himself to those estab- 
lished laws, and usages, and you put yourselves in the 
right, and us in the wrong." 

Dr. Pierce then told them that he was the oldest 
active minister in his conference, and that no subject 
had ever done so muc^h harm to the Church as this 
meddling with slavery, with which as a church we had 
nothing to do ; and eloquently and earnestly warned 
the conference against the fearful results which would 
follow to the Church if they adopted this proposal. 

The debate took a wide range and was very exciting, 
Dr. Bangs distinctly stating, that Dr. Capers had been 
offered the nomination by the Baltimore delegation if 
he would emancipate his slaves, and Dr. Capers deny- 
ing positively the fact. Explanations followed from 
John Davis, the author of the statement, and Dr. 
Capers that cleared the point up. 

Mr. Finley now introduced the famous substitute, 
which read thus : 



m GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



371 



Whereas the discipline of our churcli forbids the doing anything* 
calculated to destroy our itinerant general superintendency, and 
whereas Bishop Andrew has become connected with slavery by 
marriage, and otherwise ; and this act having drawn after it circum- 
stances which in the estimation of the General Conference will 
greatly embarrass the exercise of his office as an itinerant general 
superintendent if not in some places entirely prevent it, therefore .' 

Resolved : That in the sense of this General Conference that he 
desist from the exercise of his office, so long as this impediment 
remains. 

J. B. FlNLEY. 

Jno. Trimble. 

After a short speech from the author of the substi- 
tute, the first advocate of the substitute arose. This 
was Stephen Olin, 

His Southern friends knew what he intended to do. 
He had told Bishop Andrew the course he should take, 
and his reasons for it, and told Dr. Pierce, weeping as 
he did, the absolute necessity for the salvation of the 
Northern Church that they should take this course. 
He knew what would be the consequence of the mildest 
course the temper of the conference would allow it to 
take. He knew Bishop Andrew was a doomed Bishop, 
before a delegate had gone to New York. That, law or 
no law, he was to be sacrificed, but should he take part 
in the slaughter? Against this the noble soul of 
Stephen Olin revolted from its deepest depths ; but was 
it not necessary to save the northern wing of the Church 
from disintegration ? He thought so* 

He said that his health was so feeble, he felt he must 
speak early, or not at all, he spoke of the tender rela- 
tionships which hemmed him in. He preferred the 
substitute to the original. He did not believe the disci- 
pline of the Church forbade a slaveholding Bishop. 



372 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



He did not believe usage forbade it. He did not wish 
to insinuate that Bishop Andrew was not a most desir- 
able man for the episcopacy. He looked upon this 
question as not a legal, but a great practical one. He 
had hoped the session would be a harmonious one, and 
it was not till he reached the conference that he became 
aware of the real and sad state of the case. The cala- 
mity had come without warning, we must do the best 
we could. He was not willing to trench upon any 
rights of his Southern brethren. He was once a slave- 
holder. He did not believe in abolition. He did not 
wish to be so considered. 

He believed that James O. Andrew was pre-emi- 
nently fitted to be a Bishop. He said, " I know him 
well ; he was the fi'iend of my youth, and althougli by 
his experience and his position fitted to be a father, 
yet he made me his brother, and no man has more fully- 
shared my sympathies, nor more intimately known my 
heart for these twenty years than he has. His house 
has been my home. On his bed have I lain in sickness, 
and he with his sainted wife now in heaven, have been my 
comforter and nurse. No question under heaven could 
have presented itself so painfully oppressive to my feel- 
ings as the one now before us. If 1 had a hundred 
votes, and Bishop Andrew were not pressed by the difti- 
culties which now rest upon him, he is the man to whom 
1 would give them all." He paid a high tribute to the 
devotion of Bishop Andrew to the negro race. He spoke 
of the difficulties in the way of passing the resolution, 
and yet inflicting no censure, and expressing his opinion 
that a Bishop was the oflicer of the General Conference 
who mio-ht be removed without censure. He knew the 
difiiculties in the South, but if the worst came to the 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



373 



worst, and they went off, they would go in a compact body; 
not so in the North; there would be distraction and 
divisions, ruinous to souls, and fatal to the permanent 
interests of the Church. He would deplore the separa- 
tion of his Southern brethren from the Church, but if 
they should go, he should yet regard them with the 
feelings of a warm, kind Christian heart. lie depre- 
cated abolition and the agitation of the subject, but 
protested against allying the anti-slavery conferences 
with the abolitionists, and declared that it was no fault 
of theirs that they were thus pressed. 

This speech excited much surprise in the South, and 
among Dr. Olin's Southern friends there were mingled 
feelings of amazement, grief, and indignation. From 
many there was only bitter scorn for the man whom they 
believed had so temporized, but from those who knew 
him best there was only a deep sympathy at the difficul- 
ties surrounding him. Georgia has never been able to 
give Oiin up. lie was not like some others, mere so- 
journers for a night in the State, brought here by acci- 
dent, and remaining for convenience, but one of her, an 
inmate of her homes, the husband of one of her fairest 
daughters, one who had won in Georgia his first fame, 
and in her borders done his noblest work. 

We need not follow the debate. It was able and 
courteous in the main, but a Mr. Cass, of New Eng- 
land, made a speech which was an insult to all decency, 
and to him young Dr. George F. Pierce replied. 

He was young, ardent, fearless. He had seen the 
temper of the body; he had just heard slaveholders 
denounced as villains and men-stealers. He began by 
boldly stating that he did not expect to change the con- 
victions of any man before him, nor did he feel much 



374 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



solicitude about the question. The question of unity 
was already settled- 

He said there was slowly developing, but surely, a 
plan to deprive Southern ministers of all their rights in 
the Church. The action of the conference in the Har- 
ding case had brought the Church into antagonism to 
the laws of the land, the Church discipline, and the 
Bible. He did not believe any harm would result to 
the Church, outside of New England, by sustaining 
Bishop Andrew. He said : " They are making all the 
difficulty, and may be described in the language of 
Paul, as intermeddlers with other men's matters. I will 
allow, as it has been affirmed again and again, that 
there may be secession; societies may be broken up, 
conferences split, and immense damage of this sort 
be done within the New England conferences ; but 
wdiat then ? I speak soberly, advisedly, when I say that 
I prefer that all New England should secede, or be set 
off, and have her share of Church property, than that 
this substitute should pass. I say, let New England go^ 
with all mij heart ; she has been for twenty years a 
thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet ns ; 
let her go, and joy go w^ith hej", for peace will stay be- 
hind." He said if the Soutli wanted only serenity, she 
w^ould pray for and demand disunion. The passage of 
the resolution would not diminish, but increase divi- 
sions. He predicted that prominent men would aban- 
don the Church, that in less t]ian ten years there 
would not be one shred of the distinctive peculiarities 
of Methodism left in the conferences that depart from 
us. The presiding eldership would be given up, the 
itinerancy would come to an eiKl, and Congregationalism 
would be the order of the day. The people would 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 17S5-1865. 



375 



choose their own pastors, and preachers vrould stand 
idle m the market-places, becanse no man had hired 
them. 

These predictions were bold. Thev have been often- 
time referred to as rash and not verified, but anj man 
who can see the difference between a name and a thing 
will see that the ardent joung Georgian saw^ witli a 
prophet's eye. In alluding to Bishop Andrew, he said : ' 

What mean these eulogies — are bretliren in earnest ? 
Is this conference heaping garlands on the victim thej 
destine for slauMiter ? Will you blicj:ht with a breath 
the bliss of this worthy man ? Will you offer him up 
to appease that foul s]3ii'it of the pit, which has sent up 
its pestilential breath to blast and destroy the Church ? 
You select the venerable Bishop, one of the ablest 
and best of the whole college, to immolate him on the 
altar of this juggernaut of perdition. Think you that 
we will sit here, and see this go on without lifting a 
voice, or making a protest against it ? God forbid ; 
God forbid, I say, and speak it from the bottom of my 
heart." He finished his speech by saying : " 1 do hope, 
brethren will pause before they drive us to the fearful 
catastrophe, now earnestly to be deprecated, but inevita- 
ble, if they ]3roceed." 

This speech had a thrilling effect, and made a pro- 
found impression. But what availed eloquence or 
argument ? 

Dr. Longstreet then addressed the conference with 
that calmness and clearness w^hich always marked his 
addresses. 

He first alluded to the fact that the Christian religion 
always lost power, when she departed from her appro- 
priate sphere, but that a& churches had grown strong, 



376 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



the temptation to do this liad been yielded to. Metho- 
dism was the pure gospel religion. All rules which did 
not refer to the fitness of man for Heaven, ought to be 
stricken out ; in the course Methodism had taken in 
legislating about slavery, she has gone beyond the Bible. 
Yet the South submitted, and endeavored to shield the 
Church from censure ; now the conference proposed to 
go further. He placed the course of the conference 
most clearly, and the absurd light iii which it stood, by 
stating it thus : 

"Whereas Bishop Andrew is a man of most unim- 
peachable moral character, ardently beloved by every 
member of this conference, and in the discharge of his 
official duties, active, zealous and self sacrificing, and 
in his labors of love for the slave especially, peculiarly 
efficient and successful, and whereas, we admit that 
there is no sin in the simple fact of holding slaves, and 
nothing in slavery inconsistent wnth the ministerial 
character, and that nothing ought to be done by the 
conference to throw distrust upon the presiding elder, 
or any other preacher of the gospel, merely on the 
ground of his being a slaveholder, nevertheless, inas- 
much, as the Bishop has married a lady owning slaves, 
which slaves he has settled upon her, which circum- 
stances render him obnoxious to several Northern con- 
ferences, therefore, to preserve peace and upon grounds 
of policy, 

"Resolved, that he be suspended from his official 
duties, until he emancij^ate his slaves." 

With that withering sarcasm that he was so perfect 
a master of, Judge Longstreet exposed the absurd incon- 
sistency of the coui'se they designed to take, and begged 
the conference to pause. He went into a labored argu- 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 17S5-1SG5. 



377 



ment, say the reports, to show the legal status of Bishop 
Andrew, as a slaveholder, that he was involuntarily and 
irremediably involved as one. 

Mr. Jesse T. Peck, now Bishop Peck, then arose to 
take young Dr. Pierce in hand, and administer to him 
a fatherly rebuke. This he miglit safely venture to 
do according to the rule, since no man could speak 
twice, until all had sjDoken. As it is not the purpose of 
this history to do more than give an account of the 
part the Georgia delegation took in these debates, we 
refer our readers to other sources for a verbatim report 
of this labored speech. As Mr. Peck was about the 
same age as Dr. G. F. Pierce, and as he was not quite 
thirty-five, the fatherly tone of the speaker was as 
amusing as it was offensive, and there was no place for 
reply. But the Chair allowed Dr. Pierce to explain. 

The Jo urnal sa3's : 

''Mr. Pierce rose to explain. 
Mr. Peck has made much ado about his remarks 
concerning New England. He said, perhaps some 
apology miglit be due. He intended to say for Xew 
England to secede, or to be set off with a j9r6> rata divi- 
sion of the propertj^ would be a light evil compared 
with the immolation of Bishop Andrew on the altar of 
a pseudo expediency. He intended no disresjject to 
New England. He paid touching tributes to Bishop 
Soule and Dr. Olin, and then turning to Mr. Peck 
said : 

" ' And, sir, I recognize you as a man with a soul in 
your body, warm, generous, glowing. I admire youi* 
spirit, your genius. The beauty of the bud gives 
promise of a luscious blossom, the early beams foretell 
a glorious noon. And now^ sir, though my speech 



378 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



shocked your nerves so badly, I trust my ex])lanation 
will not ruffle a hair on the crown of your head.' " 

Mr. Peck was very portly and very bald. As the 
sj^eaker turned to him, he put his fan up to his face, 
covering it from sight, and leaving exposed only the 
bare crown of his head. The f>:ood nature of the flino; 
brought down the house, and any bad temper which l 
had been felt was at once driven away. 

It is not our purpose, and we have not space to give 
even an outline of the various points presented as this 
discussion continued. Any one who reads the debates 
carefully cannot fail to see that slavery as a system had 
nothing to do with the matter at all, save as it was the 
occasion for the difficulty. The great question really 
w^as : " Has the General Conference the right, withcfat 
trial, to deprive a Bishop of his office, if in its opinion, 
without moral delinquency or mental deficiency, he has 
become unacceptable to any part of the connection ? " 

The discussion was continued by Dr. Green, who 
brought out forcibly the main point relied upon by the 
South, that the Bishop was not an officer of the General 
Conference to be removed at its will ; that the General 
Conference was restricted in its action by the Constitu- 
tion of the Church ; that Bishop Andrew had violated 
no law of the Church, and that the General Conference 
could not legally deprive him of his ofKce. The great 
speech on the other side was made on Monday, by Dr. 
Hamline. For the first time an argument was pre- 
sented. It was as strong as it could be made on the 
position that the General Conference was supreme, and 
could remove any officer of the Church if, in its 
opinion, he had from any cause become unacceptable to 
any portion of the Church. Dr. W. A. Smith, who was 



IX GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



379 



almost without a peer in debate, followed Dr. Hamline, 
and in an able speech answered his argument, and vin- 
dicated the legal rights of Bishop Andrew. The Bishop, 
in response to a question whether he had expressed 
a willingness to resign, said (see page 147, Gen. Con. 
Jour.) that when he arrived in Baltimore he heard a 
rumor of the intention of the conference to insist that 
he must resign or be deposed. If he had violated any 
law of the Discipline, he was willing to resign. If he 
could secure the peace of the Church bv resigning, he 
would gladly do so. He had no fondness for the epis- 
copacy, and if his resignation would secure the peace 
of the Church, he would gladly present it, and return 
to labor among the slaves, and try to save those upon 
whom their pretended friends were inflicting only 
suffering and ruin. John A. Collins then introduced a 
preamble and resolution intended as a compromise, 
which of course came to naught Bishop Andrew then 
rose, and said, with deep emotion, ''that he had been on 
trial for a w^eek, and he thought it was time for the dis- 
cussion to close." He then gave an account of the man- 
ner in which he came to be a Bishop. He had been ap- 
proached by S. K. Hodges with a request that he 
should be put in nomination for the ofhce. He ob- 
jected, w^as urged by his friends, and, for the sake of 
securing peace, consented to be a candidate. Iso one 
asked him what were his principles on slave-holding ; 
no man, save Wm. Winans, spoke to him on the subject. 
He was elected. He became possessed of a slave in the 
way mentioned before. He lost his wife. He desired 
to marry again. The lady owned slaves. With his 
eyes open he married her. He could not free then]. 
They themselves would not go; many of them would 



380 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



necessarily suffer if they did. What could he do? 
He had no confession to make. He intended to 
make none. He had all his lifetime labored for 
the slaves. He did not think he was unacceptable 
out of 'New England. He could find plenty of 
ground where he could labor acceptably and usefully. 
Yet the conference might take its course. He protested 
against the one proposed as a violation of his disciplinary 
rights. (Gen. Con. Jour., p. 148.) The other speeches 
which followed were unimportant, each going over 
almost the same gj'ound. The venerable Saml. Den- 
]iody made a speech remarkable for its logic and for its 
Biblical learning on the general question of slavery as 
a moral evil. The speech of Bishop Soule was clear in 
its presentation of the legal aspect of the question as 
well as forcible and eloquent. Dr. Capers followed 
with a speech clear, conclusive, and eloqueut. 

It was evident that the Church had reached a crisis 
in her history such as she had never known ; and that 
if the vote was then taken a division was inevitable. 
The Bishop knew it, the Southern delegates knew it, 
such men as Dr. Olin knew it ; but the majority of the 
conference did not, and vrould not know it. The lead- 
ins: n^eii of the north believed that the south would sub- 
mit without a murmur to the degradation of her much- 
loved Bishop, and the overthrow of all the safeguards 
the laws of the Church gave theui. They scoffed at the 
idea of division. The extreme men of the Xorth openly 
threatened secession, schism an.d disintegration, if the 
Bishop was not deposed, for this resolution did, in factj 
deprive him of his episcopal powers. The Bishops came 
to the rescue and presented a peace measure, begging 
the postponement of action for four years. Once 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1855. 



381 



before this movement had saved tlie Church, it might 
do so again. The conference was in no humor to pause, 
and after Bishop Hedding and Bishop Waugh withdrew 
their indorsement of the plan of peace they had jointly 
with Bishops Soule and Morris presented, the whole plan 
failed. The vote must come, and it was taken by Yeas 
and Neas, on Saturday, June 1st. One New York man 
alone voted with the South — Clias. W. Carpenter. We 
have spoken of a young New Yorker in Savannah, in 
1819, who stood by the Church there in its days of 
trial ; now single-handed and alone, he stood by his 
Southern brethren. Dr. Sehon, of Ohio, G. Smith, of 
Michigan, Sinclair, of Rock River, Stamper, Berryman, 
and Van Cleve, of Illinois, Slicer, Gere, Sargent, Tip- 
pett, and Hildt, of Baltimore, Thompson, White, Cooper, 
and Cooper, of Philadelphia, Neal and Sovereign, of 
New Jersey, and the whole Southern delegation, voted 
too-ether ao-ainst the substitute. The Yeas w^ere all from 
the North and West, save 1. Clark, from Texas. The 
vote was 111 to 69. The work was done. The General 
Conference had declared that it was supreme ; that a 
Bishop elected for life could be deposed at any time 
w^hen, in the opinion of a conference, he was unaccept- 
able. It mattered not w^hy. The cause might be one 
entirely insufficient to produce the effect; but, if he 
was distasteful, he might be removed, if there were 
votes enough to do it. Connection w^ith Masonry, with 
an unpopular political party — anything might be called 
improper conduct, and without trial he could be de- 
posed. 

The majority were entirely ignorant of the extent of 
the damage this vote had done. There was perhaps 
only one among them that saw it. That was Stephen 



382 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



Olin. Only one wlio voted for that substitnte bec^anse 
he saw in that vote the only way to consolidate both 
North and South and prevent schism. He knew the 
South must go ; he believed this vote would bind her 
too-ether with bands of iron, and he was ri2:ht in this 
view. The enormity of the outrage, the bold announce- 
ment made in the deed that never Southern man again 
should be a Bishop, the disregard of all written law, 
the fearful progress of the radicalism which owned a 
higher law than the written, awakened a storm of 
indignation, which made a great unit of all the South. 

Bishop Andrew, crushed and almost broken-hearted, 
left the conference that niglit for his home in Greorgia. 

The ordinary work of the Greneral Conference con- 
tinned until the 5th of June, when Judge Longstreet 
introduced the declaration of the Southern members 
(see p. 200, Greneral Conference Journals, vol. ii.), and 
the following day Dr. Bascom introduced the celebrated 
protest which is to be found in the history of the organ- 
ization of the M. E. Church South, and the journals. 
(General Conference M. E. Church, vol. ii., p. 204.) It 
was an exceedingly able document, presenting a clear 
view of the whole issue between the Northern and 
Southern delegates. It was spread upon the minutes. 
The famous committee of nine, to whom the declaration 
of the Southern delegates was referred, reported w^hat 
is known as the plan of separation, which provides for 
the establishment of another General Conference, in 
case it became evident that such a result was necessary. 
The modes by which churches were to adhere to either 
body was indicated, and provision was made for the 
division of the Church propertj^ This report of the 
committee was unanimous, and its adoption was moved 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



383 



by Dr. Charles Elliot. He was followed by Dr. ITamline 
in a beautiful and impressive speech, and by Dr. James 
Porter. After a considerable discussion, full of Chris- 
tian feeling, the report was adopted by a large majority. 

The prospect was now bright that if division should 
come there would be only fraternity in all the borders 
of American Methodism. So it might have been ; but 
when the delegates returned to their homes, and when 
what the Southern delegates had told them would come 
to pass was about to be, measures were at once taken to 
prevent the consummation of the plan of separation, 
and years of alienation and strife was the result. 

The student of this period of history recognizes the 
old issue of 1820, when McKendree resisted the General 
Conference, as again made. He sees that the General 
Conference, intentionally or otherwise, took the ground 
of the advo(iates of an elective presiding eldership, that 
the General Conference is the supreme judicature, as 
well as leo-islature, and that its will is to be recomiized 
as the finale. The Southern Churches held different 
ground. The Bishops were co-ordinate with the confer- 
ence. They existed, by tlie expressed will of the Church, 
before there was a delegated General Conference, and 
when a General Conference of delegates was called its 
powers were limited by a constitution. We are per- 
mitted, however, to present the Southern view of the 
episcopacy, clearly and forcibly, in the words of one of 
our ablest Bishops — Bishop Wightman. 

" The episcopal form of Church government as held 
by prelatical churches, claims to be jicre divino^ and 
therefore invested with the sanction of a divine law as 
the priesthood of Aaron was. It is supposed to be the 
necessary condition of Christ's presence with his 



384 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



Church, since it is of Christ's own institution, and then 
of course it is of absolute and unchangable authority. 
This theory explains the great stress laid on the so- 
called ' Apostolical succession ; ' but its fundamental 
principle cannot be sustained by an appeal to Scrip- 
tural authority. From no passage in the New Testa- 
ment can it be shown that Christ imposed this form of 
church government or connected with it inseparably 
his covenanted grace. The Protestant, saj^s Litton, 
in his admirable book on the Church of Christ, ' will 
retain when it has been handed down to him that form 
of church polity which is sanctioned by apostolic pre- 
cedent ; he will require the clearest evidence of its 
beino; no lonp-er fitted to secure the m-eat ends of the 
Church, before he ventures to innovate upon it ; but 
when he hears apostolic precedents exalted into divine 
laws, and made immutable obligations, so that when 
there is no Bisho}3 there is no church and no sacra- 
ments, ritual and polity being set forth as that 
wherein the ti'ue being of the Church lies, he will at 
once detect the presence of that noxious element which 
makes Romanism what it is. A divinely prescribed 
polity and ritual like that of Moses, cannot, without 
sacrilege, be altered ; but no such sanction is claimed 
by the Apostles for their own regulations, much less 
can it be claimed for those of their uninspired suc- 
cessors.' 

" The episcopal form of church polity as held by the 
Southern M. E. Church, disclaims all pretensions to 
'jure divino ' authority. It rests upon the solid 
ground that episcopacy is apostolically sanctioned, 
though not enjoined hy Christ nor made obligatory. 
The history of the Methodist Episcopacy in this coun- 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



385 



tiy, proves that this form of ecclesiastical government 
is the best for wide, efficient, and successful evangeliza- 
tion. Stier in his Words of the Risen Saviour^ refers 
to Christ's manifestation to Saul of Tarsus, as to one 
whose immediate call from above should vindicate for 
all futurity the Lord's supreme right to establish new 
beginnings of regimen, to raise up a reforming of 
apostolate without succession, to be renewed in his good 
pleasure, when circumstances may require. 

John Wesley was manifestly thus I'aised up to be in 
the hands of divine Providence the great instrument in 
the signal religious awakening of the eighteenth century. 
In the rapid development of liis work in the American 
colonies, there arose at the close of the war of the Revo- 
lution an urgent necessity for the establishment of a 
7iew beginning of regimen. No act of Wesley's life was 
more important in remote and ultimate results than his 
determination to establish an episcopal i-egimen for tlie 
American Societies that were in conne(*.tion with him. 
As he did not recognize the 'jure divino' claim, as he 
was invading the rights and privileges and order of no 
jother church in Christendom, as he believed with the 
fathei'S of the Reformation, tiiat episcopacy was in ac- 
cordance with apostolic precedents, and perceived it to 
be the best bond of union, and spring of vigor, to an 
itinerant system of operations destined to be as wide 
as the Continent, he hesitated not. 

" Dr. Coke, a regularly ordained Presbyter of the 
English establishment, had united himself to Wesley's 
connection. He w^as the man to meet the American 
emergency. Wesley, aided by a Presbytery regular 
and valid, according to the New Testament and the 
ancient canons, and in the exercise of his inherent 
I IT 



386 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



power of ordination, ordained two elders, and Dr. Coke 
a Bishop, for the purpose of forming the societies of the 
American Methodists into a regular Episcopal Church, 
if such were their election. These preachers and people 
adopted accordingly the episcopal form of church re- 
quirements, received Dr. Coke cordially as their Bishop. 
Deacons and elders were now elected and ordained, 
and an additional, Francis Asbury, received the third 
ordination. Dr. Henkle shows conclusively in his Prim- 
itive EjnsGojpacy^ that the Methodist Episcopal Church 
South has episcopacy with the name, authority and 
attributes and functions of a complete order ; this epis- 
copacy having its own appropriate office, instead of being 
itself an office, or the office of a different order. The 
third ordination as unquestionably confers a life tenure, 
as the first or the second." So far, Bishop Wightman, 
who has given expression to the generally entertained 
views of the Southern delegates. Bishop Andrew had 
been deliberately and solemnly invested with a life-long 
tenure to his place. He could not without guilt sur- 
render his place unless assured from Heaven that he 
was released. He could not be deprived of his place 
unless he had violated some law of the Church and of 
Grod. He had done neither. He would gladly have 
sought retirement, but he could not conscientiously do 
so. He had done nothing to disqualify himself from 
doing all his ordination vows required. To yield to the 
demand for his retirement was to render the episcopacy 
for all time dependent upon the hasty judgment of a 
General Conference, and to make it time-serving and 
cowardly. Bishop Andrew nor his friends could thus 
yield. 

After the return of the delegates the whole Southern 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



387 



Church was in a ferment. There was great unity except 
in some of the border conferences, and a perfect unity 
in Georgia. Meetings were held over the State in all 
circuits and stations. We have said perfect unity, but 
there was one exception. Daniel Curry, a young North- 
erner, had come south as a teacher, and had been licensed 
to preach in Georgia. His sympathies were all with the 
section from which he had come, and he was too coura- 
geous to conceal his feelings, so he was loud in his 
denunciations of the course of the South, and very wisely 
concluded to return to the North ; otherwise there was 
no expressed dissent. The Convention, however, had 
not met in Louisville before the conference came on, 
which was in December, 1844. The conference met at 
Eatonton, Bishop Soule presiding. He had resolved 
to leave his Ohio home and adhere to the South, and he 
came to preside over the last conference of the M. E. 
Church held in the State of Georo;ia. Thouo^i the Con- 
ference had resolved to separate from the M. E. Church, 
yet the feeling was not a bitter one, and the agents of 
the still united Church who were present found the same 
welcome as of yore. 

The General Conference had divided the Georgia 
Conference as requested, and from that time forth the 
Florida Conference appears on the record ; but in lieu 
of this territory and the 4,500 white members given up, 
3,028 came to it from the Holston Conference, with all 
of northern Georgia, so there was only a decrease of 
about 2,500 white members. Agitation other than that 
of revival does not favor religious improvement, and 
there was a decrease of 1,000 members. There were 
twenty-one received on trial, of whom there are four in 
active work. 



388 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



The collections for the year were smaller than they 
had been. The conference collection was $1,151.37 ; 
that for missions $5,805. There were seven districts, 
and 111 preachers in active work. The white membera 
numbered 37,094:; the colored 13,094. 

The Florida now set olf included a large part of 
lower Georgia, and had four districts, thirty-two active 
preachers, 4,221 white members, and 2,653 colored. 

It liad been just fifteen years since the South Carolina 
Conference was divided and Georgia began its separate 
work. When the division took place there were eighty- 
seven preachers — now the number was 143 ; then the 
membership was 27,552, now it was 58,017. There 
were now two flourishing colleges, male and female. 
The collections had increased yearly. 

In every direction the work had prospered, until now 
scarce a county in the State was so neglected that a 
Methodist Church was not in reach of any of its inhabit- 
ants. The negro missions had become more numerous, 
and there was no large body in any part of the State who 
were not visited by the missionary. The work in Florida 
had progressed under great difficulties, but it had pro- 
gressed steadily, and now, fully organized, it gave great 
promise for the future. 



m GEORGIA AND FLORIDA 1T85-1865. 



389 



CHAPTER XI. 
1845-1866. 

Death of Blanton and Few — Jno. M. Bonnell — J. Blakely Smith 
S. C. Quillian-Chas. R. Jewell— W. B. McHan— Joy F. 
Steagall — R. F. Jones — J. Howard Harris— Jno. H. Mash- 
burn — Benj. J. Johnson — Josiah Asken — Flaudew — Cotter — 
Cone — Reese — Howard— Marietta— Forsyth — Cedar Town— 
Americus — Great Revivals — Increased Liberality — Florida 
Work— Gardner— Cooper— Connor— Rapid Growth— The War 
— The Three General Conferences before 1861— Capers 
— Early — During the War — The End — General Conference of 
1866 — Division of the Conference. 

Up to this time we have followed the Methodist 
preacher in Georgia, step by step, in his advance, and 
given an account of each yearly conference, entering as 
freely as possible into details. 

Our space, if there were no other reason, does not 
permit our going foi'ward with this minuteness ; but 
there are other reasons. The day is too recent, and the 
actors in it are many of them still living, and eulogy on 
living men is both dangerous and unpleasing. Wc 
shall try to condense into the limits of a short chapter 
what must be known to furnish a satisfactory account 
of Methodism in Georgia, until 1866, when the Georgia 
Conference was divided. 

This period naturally divides itself into four parts. 
First, Georgia Methodism to the beginning of the war. 
Second, Florida Methodism to the same period. Third, 



390 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



Georgia and Florida Methodism during the war. Fourth, 
The changes in the Church brought about by the results 
of the war. We take these up in tlieir order. 

About the period of the close of the last chapter, 
great econonncal changes were fuUj^ inaugurated in 
Georgia, which were full of results to the Church 
history. 

The railroad system of the State was at that time so 
far completed as to introduce into Georgia a new 
era. 

A railway now connected Savannah and Augusta 
wdth the Tennessee River, and others were projected 
which were soon to connect the Savannah with the 
Chattahoochee. The Cherokee country was to be 
rapidly peopled ; and w^here but a decade before was 
onl}^ a wilderness, beautiful and thrifty towns were to 
spring into being. The Church, wliicli had not waited 
for the railway, was already in this conntrj', and was 
prepared to take advantage of the new state of things. 

The General Conference of 1844:, wdiile it had attach- 
ed a considerable part of Georgia to the Florida Con- 
ference, had at the same time given to the Geoi^gia Con- 
ference all that part of the State in the np-country 
hitherto served by the Holston preachers. 

The provision for the new General Conference made 
at Louisville in 1845, and the separation of two sections 
of the Church into the Methodist Episcopal Church and 
the Methodist Episcopal Church South, threw the Geor- 
gia Conference, as it did all the Soutliern conferences, 
upon its own resources both for missionary and confer- 
ence funds. How it met these demands upon it, it re- 
mains for this chapter to show. 

There had resulted no strife from this division in this 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1 8()5. 



391 



section. The Georgia preachers were united in desiring 
it, and the body was perfectly homogeneous. 

Year by year classes of gifted men applied for admis- 
sion to the travelling connection, and the number who 
located grew fewer. Every year some honored one 
died at his pest, but there was another to take his place. 
In 1846 two men who had been of great service to the 
Church and the State passed aw^ay, Benj. Blanton and 
Ignatius A. Few. 

Benj. Blanton w^as at the time of his death the only 
one left of the old line who came from Virginia to 
Georgia, to aid in evangelizing a new State. He was a 
presiding elder as early as 1798, and that year located, 
and for many years remained local, then entered the 
conference again, that he might die in the harness. Of 
him we have spoken previously. 

Ignatius A. Few, of whom we have had much to say, 
as he often prayed that he might, fell calmly asleep in 
Jesus. 

For some years before his death, he had been com- 
pelled by feeble health to remain in retirement, driven 
by it from the w^ork he loved. He had been converted 
in the maturity of his life, and was nearly forty years 
old w^hen he began to preach. He had not then twenty 
years of life left, and his health was not good. He 
however, w^asted no hour after that, and no man who 
ever woi'ked in the Georgia Conference has left his 
impress upon the future more indelibly. In the annual 
and general conferences he was a power. He was a 
man of the broadest culture and of the most enlarged 
and liberal views. Entering upon the work of the 
ministry at a time when he was needed, he had brought 
to it a consecration of energy which was entire. He 



392 



fflSTORY OF METHODISM 



began his career in a conference in. which there was at 
the same time Lovick Pierce, James O. Andrew, and 
Stephen Olin. He did not pass away until he saw 
Augustus B. Longstreet, Geo. W, Lane, Gr. F. Pierce, and 
others like to them in tlie active work of the bod}^, and 
until he saw the colleges and schools which had sprung 
into being, largely through his influence, in successful 
operation. It was meet, then, that one of the two socie- 
ties of Emory College should be called the Few, and 
tliat his portrait should hang on the walls of the Few 
Hall ; and wdien the Masonic fraternity of which he was 
an honored member erected a monument to his memory, 
that it should be placed in the front of the college 
chapel. 

While the old veteran and the gifted scholar passed 
away, others came forvvard to take their places. Many 
came ; some of them live and work still, many of them 
liave entered into rest. 

John M. Ponnell, a .young Pennsylvanian, of whom 
we speak in the sketch of Methodism in Athens, began 
liis work in 184:6, to end it by a peaceful death twenty- 
seven years afterwards. 

J. Blakeley Smith entered the conference in 1847, 
and died suddenly while Presiding Elder of the Ameri- 
cus District in 1870. For twenty-three years he had 
been a most efficient worker. He was a man of fine 
person, of fine business qualifications, of great common 
sense, and a man, if not of broad, yet of very correct 
culture. He was a moving and successful preache]*. 
His fine qualifications for the office called him to the 
secretaryship of the conference. He retained this posi- 
tion for several j^ears, up to the division of the confer- 
ence, and then was secretary of tlie South Georgia till 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 17S5~LSG5. 



393 



his death, lie was a decided Methodist in his convic- 
tions, and adhered, with a devotion ahnost nnusiial with 
so young a man^ to the features of the first days of the 
Churcii. Gifted in the pulpit, he was more so in prayer 
aud in exhortation. He was so well suited to the office 
of ao;ent that he was selected as aoj-ent for the Tract 
Society and for the AVesleyan Female College, and did 
his work with great efficiency. 

Smith C. Quillian, who entered the conference with 
him and died some years before him, was one of the 
large family of that name who, from the beginning of 
Methodism in Georgia, have been devoted to it. He 
was not a brilliant man, but one of strong common sense 
and of great piety. He died in the early years of his 
ministry, 

Charles R, Jewett had entered the conference four 
years before them. He was the son of a devotedly 
pious layman in Macon, George Jewett. This good 
man, during a protracted meeting in Macon, felt so im- 
pelled to search for his thoughtless son, that, leaving the 
church, he sought him till he found him ; the boy came 
to church and was converted ; soon afterwards he began 
to preach. He was not, nor did he claim to be, a man 
of great intellectual power ; but he was a man of fine 
taste, of gentle manners, a most untiring pastor, and a 
most successful worlcer. 'No church went down when 
he was in charge of it, and no district was other than 
well served over which he presided. He was always 
frail, but he did his work for nearly twenty years, and 
then died of consumption in Thomasville, in which city 
he w^as the stationed preacher. 

W. B. McHan, one of two brothers who entered the 
conference in ISttG, was one of that class to whom the 
17^ 



394 



HISTOKY OF ^iETHODISAI 



Chnreh in Greorgia is so much indebted, who, without 
brilliant powers or careful training, give themselves to 
the hai'd work demanded of them. He became a 
]3reacher of very respectable gifts, and did useful work 
until, after a season of deepest affliction, he was called 
to his reward. 

Ivy F. Steagal, after thirteen years of useful work, 
died in ISiT. He had for some years been a local 
p)reacher, and in 1S34:, when the demand for workers 
was imperious and the promise of reward was small, he 
entered the work. He travelled hard circuits and 
harder districts, and did his duty in every field. His 
health broke down under his labors, and he retired to 
his home in Upson County, where he died. 

He was a man of most devoted piety and a preacher 
of real power. lie belonged to that class of Georgia 
preachers who, when there was no hope of family sup- 
port, and when rides were long and exposure great, 
held on his way while his faithful wife attended to the 
farm and supported the cliildren. 

Josiah Askew, who died the same year, was a Xorth 
Carolinian, born in the mountains of Burke County. 
His father removed, while the Indians were yet in the 
coimty, to Habersham County, in Georgia. He learned 
there was a camp-meeting in progress, and passing by 
his new home, he went immediately to it, nor returned 
to his own house till it was over. Josiali went to Ran- 
dolph Macon College. He evinced talents of a very 
high order, and while at college was licensed to preach. 
He was induced to remain in Virginia, and there mar- 
ried. He soon acquired considerable reputation for 
gifts and piety ; his health failed him, and he came to 
Georgia. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1805. 



395 



He was for a while professor in the "Weslevan Fe- 
male College, but even for that his failing health un- 
fitted him. He published a journal. The Southern 
Pulpit^ to which he contributed sermons of really 
very great merit ; then ceased from all his public work, 
and early in life, when only thirty-five years of age, 
he passed to his reward. He was the uncle of Dr. A. 
G. Haygood, of the North Georgia Conference. 

J. T. Flanders, Robert iST. Cotter, and James H. 
Reese, were three young men who had left their simple 
homes to preach the Gospel. They were young when 
they fell at their posts. Without advanced education, 
they had, better than learning, zeal and piety, and made 
fall proof the ministry till they were called hence, 

W. H. C. Cone was an older man. He was sensible, 
useful, and pious — genial and lovable. He went into 
the army as chaplain, and contracted a fatal disease, 
from the effects of which he died. 

Columbus W. Howard came in the vigor of his man- 
hood to the work, and bade fair to reach a high place 
in the Church. Earnestly solicited by his old friends, 
he took a captain's commission in the army, and 
while bravely leading his company to battle, in the 
first Manassas fight, he was shot dead. He had pre- 
served his ministerial robe unsullied amid the tempta- 
tions of the camp, and possessed the full confidence of 
his brethren. 

Robert F. Jones, the son of James Jones, joined the 
conference in 1851, and travelled consecutively for 
twenty-five years. His father was a laborious and 
devoted minister, and he was the worthy son of such a 
father. He travelled all kinds of circuits. In the 
mountains and in the lowland swamps, on circuits 



396 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



wliere the salary was small and insufficient, he did the 
work he was called upon to do with patient diligence. 
He was a man of good education and of strong com- 
mon sense. He was not sliowy, nor aspiring, and was 
only known to those who came in close contact with 
him. His piety was deep and practical, and his last 
hours were those of uninterrupted peace. He died 
January 17, 1876. Jno. Howard Harris was his confer- 
ence classmate. After travelling for the same time in the 
same conference with him, lie died just one month after 
him. He died very suddenly of disease of the heart, 
while stationed at Evans' Chapel, in Atlanta. He was 
a man of good parts — was very zealous and successful. 

Jno.'H. Mashburn, who died not long after, in June, 
1876, was an older man by many years— he had passed 
his three score ; he had been a preacher from his twenty- 
fourth yeai', and had travelled in conference connection 
from 1S51. Few men in the same length of time have 
done harder work than he did. He was born in the 
mountains, and loved to linger under their shadow, and 
nearly all his ministerial life he spent on mountain 
circuits. He continued in the ministry for near fifty 
years. When still an active man he was taken ill, in 
consequence of his endeavor to reach an appointment 
in excessively cold weather, and died in great peace. 

Benj. J. Johnson, the son of a local preacher, began 
his ministerial work in Florida, in 1857, and in the 
vigor of his mature manhood, from a severe injury 
Vvliich he received, after lino-erino; lono; in o;reat suf- 
fering, he died in triumph during the year 1876. He 
went to his work with cheerfulness, and prosecuted it 
with vigor ; was a preacher of more than ordinary 
capacity, and was deeply devoted to his Master. His 



IN GEOEGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



397 



piety during the last days of his life was especially fer- 
vent, and although suffering much, his spiritual joy was 
exceedingly great. He died Dec. 22, 1875, at only 
forty-six years old. 

These w^ere some of those vvdio came to the work and 
died in it. The sketches of their lives are necessarily 
sliort and imperfect, but they live in the memory of 
their brethren. 

The period of which we now take a survey was a 
most prosperous one for the Church. The State was 
advancing, and with it the Church went on. 

Large circuits and large districts were divided, and 
new stations were formed. In 1846 the new town of 
Marietta became a station. Ten years before, the first 
sermon had been preached in the log court-house, and 
not long after a small church had been built in the vil- 
lage. The completion of the railroad from Atlanta 
had led many to seek the almost matchless climate of 
this new village, which, lying under the shadow^ of the 
Kenesaw, is alike a good home for the consumptive in 
winter and the fever-stricken in summer. Jackson P. 
Turner was the first stationed preacher, then Lewis J. 
Davies, and in 1849, Charles R. Jewett. A new^ church 
was now a necessity, and it was built during that year. 
Among those who had removed to Marietta was the 
widow of Asaph Watterman, whose name is found in 
such high place in the early Augusta Church. There 
Vvcre others like unto her, and the church soon became 
a strong one, and has been, and is a most delightful 
charge. 

The new town of Rome, folded as it is in the arms of 
the Etowah and the Oostenaula, had now become a 
young city, and had built a neat brick church, and 



398 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



Joshua Knowles was sent to it as a stationed preacher. 
Along the line of the newly completed Macon and 
Western Railway new villages were springing up, and 
Griffin, a considerable town, was separated from the 
Griffin Circuit and became a station. A very handsome 
brick church was erected, and the Church has continued 
to grow in importance to this day. 

Talbotton became a station in 1846, and w^ith its 
college and high-school, and its fine body of Methodist 
people, has continued a pleasant charge to the present 
time. 

In 1859, Forsyth, which had been the centre of the 
important Forsyth Circuit, was made a separate station, 
and the circuit, reduced in size, placed in a separate 
charge. 

In 1859 the village of Cedar Town was separated 
from the Cave Spring Circuit and made a station. It 
is located in perhaps the most beautiful valley in 
Georgia. Cedar Creek, a considerable stream, clear as 
crystal, meanders through the valley, and along its 
banks are lands unsui-passed in fertility. The moun- 
tains are round about. Attracted by the beauty and 
fertility of the valley, many citizens of culture and 
wealth removed to it, and it became and has continued 
to this day a most delightful station. Here Elijah Bird, 
one of the early Methodist preachers, ended his days; 
and here a strong friend of the Church resided, Wm. 
Peek, one of the wealthiest planters of Upper Georgia. 
Tlie wooden church first built has been given to the 
negroes, and a neat brick church now supplies the wor- 
shippers. The railroads moving towards the southwest 
opened up that very fertile section of Georgia, and 
Americus became a considerable town, and was made a 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



399 



statioi]. The cojigregation was large and wealthy, and 
a very handsome church was erected. Few places in 
Georg-ia of its size are more noted for cultivation and 
hospitality than Americus. It entertained the Annual 
Conference in 1855, and ten years later it was in Ameri- 
cus that the Georgia Conference was divided. It has 
since entertained the South Georgia Conference, and is 
110W5 thougli reduced in wealth, recognized as one of 
the m.ost delightful stations in the South Georgia Con- 
ference, and is supplied with the most gifted ]nen of 
that body. But Vve have not space to enumerate all the 
chano;es in the work. 

Revivals were almost annual in every charge. Unlike 
some of the early decades of the Church, there was ]io 
season of general dearth. It would be easier to tell 
places unblessed with revival showers than to mention 
those which were. In 1857, especially, there was a most 
wonderful revival. In Columbus, in La Grange, in 
Atlanta, in Athens, in Macon, in Griffin, and on many of 
the circuits, the good work went on with wonderful power. 

The camp-meetings were growing fewer every year, 
but the protracted meetings were now almost universal. 
Week-day preaching was superseded by Sunday ser- 
mons. Districts were made smaller, and the services of 
presiding elders were frequently tendered to individual 
churches. In nothing was the advance greater than in 
the mission work. Every large county in which there 
were many slaves had its missionary, and in every city 
there was a neat and commodious building for the col- 
ored members, who were generally served by intelligent 
young men from the Conference. The large mountain 
circuits, the wide areas of country in the wire-grass, were 
alike supplied by the domestic missionary. 



400 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



The Church grew in liberality as it increased in num- 
bers. The old barns in the older counties gave way, and 
handsome new churches, neatly furnished, were built; 
and while every circuit did not have a parsonage, these 
preachers' houses were rapidly multiplying. The sup- 
port of the ministry, if not quite ample everywhere, was 
much better than it had been, and men were less sensi- 
tive when they were appealed to for money. The con- 
ference collection had increased from $1,120.00 in 1845 
to $9,729.00 in 1S60. For missions, from $6,514.00 to 
$28,938.00. The Sunday-schools had contributed for 
their own uses §4,155.00, and the publishing interests 
$7,625.00. The membership of the Chu]-cli had now 
grown from 38,969 to 56,700 whites, and from 14,687 
colored to 27,400. 

The male college at Oxford, under the presidency of 
Dr. J. K. Thomas, was never more prosperous ; and the 
female colleges all over the State, of which the old "\Yes- 
levan still held the lead, all in o-ood condition. 

Such was the state of the Methodist Church in Geor- 
gia the December before the war commenced. Let us 
now turn to Florida. 

The Florida Conference was set off from the Georgia 
at the General Conference of 1844. It included all 
that part of Florida which was east of the Chattahoo- 
chee River, and a very large part of Southern Georgia. 
This part of the territory was of large area, and very 
difticalt to serve. It included all the countrj' south the 
Altamaha Elver, and directly west from that river to 
the Chattahoochee. The Florida work was divided into 
sections, those of East and Middle Florida. East 
Florida was now an almost entirely new country, and of 
very considerable extent. Apart from the difliculties 



IX GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 17S5--186o. 



401 



always attending a new settlement, the climate^ the 
insects, and the characte]' of the living of that section, 
demanded a constant sacrifice on the part of the 
preachers. The great resources of E-ast Florida since 
developed, arising from its fitness for producing 
vegetables and fruits, were then, if knr>wn, not re- 
garded. The forests were in many cases not yet felled. 
The only cereal produced was maize, and this was 
weevil-eaten before it came from tlie field. A large 
part of the country was low and covered with lakes 
and lagoons. The new settlements were generally of 
poor people, whose reliance was upon the rifle, and 
fishing-line ; and those among the first settlers Avho were 
in better circumstances were only rich in herds of small 
cattle —though from the first there were some wealtliy 
cotton-planters. Such was East Florida in 1S4:6, in 
which there was not yet a town of 500 inhabitants. 
Middle Florida was already thickly settled, and by an 
excellent class of people. Tallahassee, Quincy, Monti- 
cello, and Madison were then ceritres of intelligence 
and wealth. Perhaps no part of Georgia or Carolina 
presented a more compact, intelligent, and prosperous 
body of j^eople than Middle Florida did at this early 
day. Methodism had entered the field there innnedi- 
ately after its first settlement, and a few years after the 
purchase of the territory ; and the most gifted young 
men in the South Carolina^ and afterward tlie Georgia 
Conferences, w^ere sent to the field, so tliat now there 
were flourishing churches all through this section. 

This new conference, organized in ISiS, was but 
scantily supplied with laborers, and they were most of 
them young men. Jno. L. Jerry was still among them. 
Peyton P. Smith, now fourteen years in the work, 



402 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



reinaiiied there, and John Slade, who resided in 
Florida as a local preacher, returned to the work in 
which his early years had been spent ; but the large 
majority were but yonng men. There were only 
thirty-four preachers in all, and tlie labor demanded 
was simply immense. That these few young men 
should even partially meet the demand made upon them 
was really wonderful. How well they did their work 
we shall see. The first who fell at his post was Alex. 
Martin, a Pennsylvanian, by birth a man of fine parts, 
but one whose ministrj^ was a short one. 

I. R. Connor, and Wm. C. Brady, two valuable young 
men, the one in the first, and the other in the second year 
of his ministry, followed him to the grave. 

Then Wm. Choice, Jno. Slade and Jno. L. Jerry, three 
veterans, passed to their reward. We have already told 
the story of their lives. How much Florida owes to 
them, who can tell ? 

Thomas Gardner, who had spent his early days in the 
ministry, and after a location of several years re-entered 
the work in Florida, and died in 1»59. 

Thos. W. Cooper, a young man whose soul blazed 
with a desire to save men, died at his post in Jackson- 
ville, and after ten years of hard labor, Wm. Edwards 
entered into rest. As the laborers fell out, others came 
and took up the work. 

Tliei-e was no more difiicult part of the church work 
of the Florida Conference than that in Georgia. We 
have spoken of the general features of the country. 
South-western Georgia was rapidly becoming a great 
cotton-field. The wealthy planters of Georgia, who 
could not risk their own lives along the banks of the 
Flint and its tributaries, found the climate not unsuited 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-18G5. 



403 



to their negroes, and so vast plantations were opened. 
The planters made fortunes, but the weary itinerant 
who breathed in the malaria as he sought out the 
negroes, the superintendents of the plantations, and the 
scattered whites, who lived on the healthier and poorer 
lands, found his service difficult, and -as far as this 
world's reward was concerned, very unprofitable. In 
the wide wire-grass area, south of the Altamaha, he met 
with even more difficulties. The country was poor, and 
had not improved since its settlement, and the difficul- 
ties which James Norton niet with, forty years before, 
these Florida preachers met with now. To single men 
the work was hard, but when a man had a familv it 
was almost impossible to do it. 

The wide extent of the conference almost forbade 
the location of his family at any one place. He who 
was at Albany this year, might be at Key West the 
r.ext, and he who was on Decatur Circuit in Georgia, 
might be read out to Indian River in Florida, four-hun- 
dred miles away. 

There were no railroads in the State then, and save 
on the St. John's and the Chattahoochee no steamboats. 
There were no parsonages, only a few regularly organ- 
ized boards of church officers, aud outside of the small 
area of middle Florida, and the country immediately 
adjacent in Georgia, there was no hope of anything like 
a comfortable maintenance. This was in 1845. But 
what a change passed over this conntry before 1861. 
The savannahs and hammocks of East Florida attracted 
good settlers from South Carolina and Georgia. The 
tropical and fertile lands on the banks of Pease Creek 
and the Manatee River attracted men of wealth, cul- 
ture, and piety. The St. John's became the great high- 



404 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



way of a profitable trade. Feriiandina, the first Metho- 
dist preaching-place in Florida, and save St. Augustine 
the only city on its eastern coast, became a delightful 
abode for the preacher. Jacksonville, Pilatka, Gaines- 
ville, and many other villages, sprang into existence, a 
railroad was built from Jacksonville to Quincy, and 
from Fernandina to Cedar Keys. The planters grew rich 
raising sugar, Sea Island cotton and cattle. The health 
of the country improved, and as it improved, both peo- 
ple and preachei's were enabled to do better work. 
Young men of talent and culture, raised in Florida, 
entered the work, otliers came from abroad, and by the 
year 1861 there were 10,008 whites and 8,600 blacks 
on the church rolls, while in 1846 there had been only 
4,827 whites and 2,345 blacks. The collections in 1861 
were $1,286 for conference claimants, and $5,235 for 
missions. There were now five large districts, and 
eighty-six effective preachers. 

Such was the state of the Georgia and Florida work 
at the respective conferences in 1860. Then came the 
war. 

Not two months before the conferences met, a presi- 
dential election had been held, but who could have 
foreseen the result of the ballots cast that day. In less 
than six months afterward, there w^as the marshalling 
of troops and the booming of guns. Like a cyclone, 
suddenly had the storm burst, but not like a cyclone 
was it speedily to end. 

Throughout all Geoi^gia and all the South there was 
mad excitement. The leading men of the church left 
their homes, many of them to return no more. That 
the preachers sympathized with their people ; that many 
of them too went with the army, might have been ex- 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1805. 405 

pectecl. Some of them as private soldiers, some of them 
as colonels and captains, some of them as chaplains. 
That nothhig was said, best left unsaid, that nothing 
was done, best left undone, who shall say ? Ere the 
next conference met the w^hole State was one vast 
camp. 

Before this period three General Conferences had been 
held — one at Petersburg, Va., one at Nashville, Tenn., 
the other at Columbus in Georgia. 

The one which met at Petersburg had but little to do 
save to adjust the machinery of Methodism to tlie new 
General Conference. Bishop Soulehad adhered South, 
Bishop Andrew was already in the South, but two 
others were demanded ; one of those selected was Wm. 
Capers. He had entered the ministry nearly forty years 
before in Georgia, and was living in Georgia^ w^hen lie 
was selected for his office. We have said much of him, 
but yet said too little. He began his episcopal work, 
he prosecuted it w^ith Zealand ability ; although almost 
an old man, and certainly not a strong man when he 
entered upon it, he did not shrink from its toils. He 
settled his family in the pleasant village of Anderson, 
S. C, and was residing there when God called him to 
his final reward. Kobert Paine was elected at the same 
time to the same office. He had been a preacher at that 
time for thirty years. He still lives, full of years and 
honors. He has been often at the Georgia Conference 
and has always impressed it agreeably. A fine parlia- 
mentarian — an elegant scholar — an earnest, eloquent 
preacher, and most judicious in his appointments of 
the preachers, he has filled his responsible office well. 

The next General Conference met in St. Louis, Mo. 
Dr. H. B. Bascom, of Kentucky, was elected and or- 

( 



406 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



dained bishop. He never presided at a conference, and 
only survived his election a few months. He visited 
Georgia not very long before his election, and made a 
very profound impression from the pulpit. 

In 1854 another General Conference was held. It 
met in Columbus. The great suit between the Churches 
had now been settled, and the location of the publishing 
house was the great question before the body ; after 
long debate it was decided to place it at Nashville. 
While the debate was pending three bishops were 
selected. One of these was Dr. George Foster Pierce. 
He was the second Georgian who had been elevated to 
this office. Of him we have spoken much, and the un- 
ceasing toils of the last twenty years in this laborious 
office have spoken more than we dare speak. 

John Early, one of the fathers of Virginia Methodism, 
who had begun his ministry as eai-ly as 1808, was elected 
at the same time ; and Hubbard H. Kavanaugh, of 
Kentucky, was the third chosen. 

John Early was a Christian gentleman of the old Vir- 
ginia school. His parents were Baptists, and belonged 
to a family of position in the State of his birth. He 
began his ministry early in life, and prosecuted it for 
over sixty years. He was a man of inflexible will, of 
strong, clear head, and of undoubted piety. 

In the early days of his life, and for many long years, 
he was a preacher of rare power. He was famous as a 
presiding officer, and in the absence of the bishop always 
presided over the Virginia Conference. Upon his judg- 
njent his Conference relied with almost entire trust ; 
and, though he was an old man when elected, perhaps 
too old for the labor of his office, it was it was felt that 
the highest gift his Church could give was a return too 



IN GEOBGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



407 



small for faithful service such as his had been for nearly 
fifty years. He labored on until it was evident that, 
whether the old hero felt w^illing to rest or no, that duty 
CO him demanded that he should; and at the General 
Conference of 1866, when Bishop Andrew voluntarily 
retired, his old friend and life-long colaborer retired 
with him from the active duties of the episcopate. 
Bishop Early was a chivalrous, grand old man, and he 
had been a true brave man all the days of his life. 
Those who knew him in private life, who had met Jiim 
at his delightful home in Lyneburg, or who had him 
with them around their own firesides, loved him most ; 
and while many loved him, all honored him. 

Bishop Kavanaugh still lives. He w^as born, has 
lived and will probably die, a citizen of Kentucky. He 
has preached much in Georgia, and often presided at 
the Georgia Conference ; and in few States is he heard 
with more pleasure, and regarded with truer affection. 

The general conference niet again in 1858, at Nash- 
ville, Tenn. There were no Bishops elected, and noth- 
ing transpired which demands our notice here. The 
next was to meet in New Orleans, in 1862, but ere the 
May came for its assembling, the city was in the hands 
of the federal army. 

During the whole of the year 1861, only one subject 
engrossed the minds of the people — the war. It soon 
assumed dimensions of magnitude greater than any had 
conjectured, and family after family gave up its best 
loved. They went to the field of battle and many of 
them fell. There was but little religious prosperity 
at such a time as this, but the preachei'S held their places, 
and when one left his station or circuit for the fieldj 
others came in and supplied the vacated place. 



408 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



Georgia was not invaded nor threatened with invasion 
for some time, and church work went quietly on ; but 
the absence of so many official members, stewards and 
class-leaders especially, led to a sad derangement in the 
management of church affairs. Then there was the 
frequent battles, the many deaths, the darkness of sor- 
row, and the fearful anxiety wearing life away. The 
terrible years swept on. Provisions grew scarcer and 
scarcer. Georgia sent herds of cattle, and train load 
after train load of bread-stuffs and bacon to the army, 
until it was a question to those at home how they should 
get bread. The most of her arms-bearing men were 
gone ; first she sent the flower of her young men ; then 
all under forty-five ; then all between fifteen and sixty. 
Her schools were suspended, her churches and college- 
buildings used as hospitals, her very church bells cast 
into cannon ; and yet the war went on ; at last, Geor- 
gia herself was invaded. Before Sherman's onward 
march, crowds of refugees fled into the heart of the 
State. The necessaries of life reached fabulous prices: 
Five dollars bought a pound of bacon ; one hundred 
and fifty dollars a hundred pounds of flour ; five dollars 
a pound of sugar; thirty dollars a yard of prints; yet, 
despite all this, the preachers held their ground. How 
they lived, we cannot tell ; but they did, not a man 
deserted his post ; not a family starved. The confer- 
ences were regularly held, even after the invasion of 
the State ; and after the fall of Atlanta, the last before 
the end of the war was held in Athens, in 1864. 

The preachers at that conference received their ap- 
pointments and went to their respective fields. Sher- 
man had made his march to the sea. A wide belt of 
country, the finest in the State, was left a desolation ; 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



409 



what the sword could not devour, the fire-brand con- 
sumed. Savannah fell, then many of the bravest hearts 
lost hope, and the darkness of despair settled over a 
doomed people. Then the fearful end came. In April, 
1865, the last Southern soldier laid down his musket 
and turned his face homeward. 

Wars liave been waged, and wars have ended before ; 
but never was there such an ending as this. Such a 
terrific npheaval only to be likened to those great up- 
lieavals of which geology teJls the story. Of the one 
hundred thousand who had gone forth from Georgia, 
how few returned ! and those who did, came to a 
ravaged land. Dalton, Rome, Cassville, Marietta, were 
some of them in ashes, all of them largely iu ruins. 
Atlanta was swept by shot and shell and flame. Macon 
was in the hands of Wilson's i-aiders. The great facto- 
ries in Columbus were burned. Savannah, although it 
had escaped the fire, was and had been for months in 
the hands of the conqueror. A wide sweep of country, 
from the Chattahoochee to Savannah, along which the 
army, v/ith its buuimers and house burners, had marched, 
was a desolation. The newly freed slaves were rejoic- 
ing in their unrestrained freedom, courts were sus- 
pended, there was no law save the law of God, no tri- 
bunal save that of conscience. 

In upper and middle Georgia the great question was, 
How shall we escape starvation ? How we did escape — 
and escape we did — who shall tell ? The good God 
watched over his people, and although there was suffer- 
ing and much privation, there was no famine. 

The preachers had gone to their appointments in 
December, 1864-. They remained at them and they 
lived. There was at the first no money, there was a 
18 



410 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



scant supply of provisions, the railroads were torn up, 
communication was broken ; but the work of the Church 
went on. 

What was to be the future of the Church ? The hos- 
tility of the Federal armies to the Methodist Church 
South was intense. The Government had seized the 
publishing house, the churches in Nasliville, Memphis, 
New Orleans, and elsewhere. The army officers had at 
once removed the charges of colored people from our 
care, and ^^laced them under the control of men im- 
ported from the North. They would have seized the 
church in Savannah, save that the intrepid pastor stood 
at his post, and held his church. There were not a few 
hearts which failed them for fear, and who declared firm- 
ly though sadly that the days of Southern Methodism 
were numbered. Yet the Church did not die. Encom- 
passed with difficulty as she was, she held her place still. 
In 1865, when the day for the assembling of conference 
came, thei-e were enough of the preachers able to get to 
Macon to form a conference and to confer about the 
future. 

Dark as these times were, poverty-stricken as were 
the people, there was yet collected for conference claim- 
ants $4,473, and for missions $2,549. The country was 
I'ecuperating rapidly. There was a great deal of cotton 
left, and it brought very high prices, and the people 
were soon beyond fear of starvation ; yet church work 
was such as to force many of the best workers in the 
conference into a partial retirement, in which they 
might by personal exertion provide for their families ; 
but many went as of yore to the Master's work. The 
field w^as ripe for the sickle ; the people who had been 
so stricken came flocking to the Saviour, and he had 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 411 



compassion upon them and healed them. It was a har> 
vest-time indeed, and for many years the Church had 
known no year so fruitful as the iirst year after the war 
had ended. 

When the conference met at Americus, in 1866, it 
was evident that the Church was not dead, and would 
not die. 

Previously to the meeting of this conference, the 
General Conference of 1866 had met in New Orleans. 
It was the first in eight years. 

It was a very important session. The impression was 
general that the change in the state of things in the 
country demanded changes in church economy. For 
many years the I'ule which required expulsion for ab- 
sence from class-meetings had been disregarded, and it 
was now repealed. The laymen had now demanded 
representation in conference assemblies, but there was 
a general opinion among the preachers that it was a 
need of the Church, and a plan for it was adopted and 
submitted to the conferences. The term of pastoral 
service was extended from two to four years. 

Bishop Andrew and Bishop Early retiring, four 
active new Bishops were demanded, and four were 
elected : W. M. Wightman, David S. iJoggett, Enoch 
M. Marvin, and H. N. McTyiere. 

Bishop Wightman had been long connected with Geor- 
gia, for he had been editor of the Southern Christian 
Advocate for seventeen years. He was greatly honored 
and deeply beloved. He had once before, twelve years 
before this conference met, come within one vote of 
being elected, and, but for the carelessness of the voter 
in writing his ticket, would have been elected by a 
majority of one. Bishop McTyiere had received his 



412 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



first academic training in Georgia, and as editor of the 
Nashville Advocate had large intercourse with the 
Georgia preacliers and people. Bishop Doggett, as 
editor of the Review^ was well-known to them all. 
Bishop Marvin, known so well beyond the Mississippi, 
wa$ nnknown to the Eastern Conferences. The Church 
has had no reason to regret the election of any of the 
four, and thej^ are all of them greatly beloved in Georgia 
and Florida. Each has presided over the conferences, 
and always to profit and pleasure. These Bishops have 
been called to places requiring capacity of the highest 
order, and they have shown that they possessed it. 
The}^ have been called to follow those whose devoted 
lives and immense toils have made them the admired of 
all Methodism, and they have shown by their devotion 
and their toils that they were worthy successors of 
them. 

At this general conference permission was given to 
the Georgia Conference to divide into two bodies at 
such time as it should see fit, and in case of division, 
that the part of Georgia then contained in the lines of 
the Florida Conference should be attached to the 
Southern Georgia Conference. 

The conference met in Americus, and this was the 
great question before it. It was by no means a unani- 
mous opinion that the time had come for the division, 
and the ablest men in the body were arrayed against 
each other ; but the fact that now there was so large a 
membership, that there was lay delegations, and espe- 
cially the fact that the Florida Conference, enfeebled 
as all the conferences were by the war in her financial 
sti'ength, and with an insufiicient ministerial force, could 
not supply the large mission areas of Southern Georgia 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



413 



with preachers, led to the rehictaiit concliisioii that the 
conference must divide. With perfect harmony a line 
M^as fixed, and henceforward there were tw^o confer- 
ences in Georgia — the North and South Georgia. 

At this point w^e cease to trace the history of Metho- 
dism year by year. Other chapters of special charac- 
ter follow, and our work is for the present ended. 

Thirty-six years the Georgia Conference had been in 
existence. The growth of the Church in that period 
had been w^onderfiil. There were at the time of tlie 
division over 50,000 white members and 20,000 col- 
ored. Since the formation of the conference in 1830 
the membership had been nearly tripled. Greater ad- 
vancement w^as yet before it. 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



CHAPTER XII. 

Methodism in the Cities— Augusta— Savannah— Athens— Macon- 
Columbus AND Atlanta. 

Although Savannah antedates Augusta as a city by 
several years, yet, as Methodism was established in the 
latter city first, it claims priority in Methodist history. 

Immediately after the first settlement of tlie colony 
in 1732, a fort was established on its upper boundary, 
which was called Augusta, in honor of a youug prin- 
cess, daughter of George II., for whom the colony was 
named. 

It was simply a fort, and a trading-post for the 
Cherokee, Uchee, and Chickasaw tribes of Indians, 
who still owned all the land north and west of it. The 
trade with the Indians increased, the traders became 
more numerous, and a village sprang up. After the 
surrender of the charter of the trustees to the govern- 
ment, and the establishment of the English Church 
about 1757, a church was built and a parish laid out. 
This parish was called St. Paul's. The church was 
served by missionaries sent out by the Society for the 
Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. The first 
of these was Jonathan Copp. 

He found a cono;re2:ation of from 80 to 100 mem- 
bers, but had only eight communicants. He had neither 
rectory nor glebe, and the promise of £20 per annum 
from the vestry was broken ! The Indians were near 
by, and were not friendly ; still he maintained his place 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



415 



for five years. He was the first frontiersman among 
the English-American clergy ; he, however, left the 
place, and Solomon Frink succeeded him, and re- 
mained three years.^ In 1767 Edward Ellington came. 
He was an itinerant EpiscopaL'an, who travelled over 
the thinly-settled country to perform his official duties. 
He did hard work until the revolutionary war, and 
then disappeared, perhaps returning to England ; 
Augusta fell into the hands of the British, and the 
church was destroyed. 

The Grand Jury of 1782 presented the fact that 
there was no church in Augusta, nor in Richmond 
County. f There was, as far we can discover, no preach- 
ing in this section. Perhaps Bottsford, or the Mar- 
shalls, or Silas Mercer — one of whom lived in the coun- 
ty of Burke, and the others on the Kiokee, in what is 
now Columbia County — may have visited the city. A 
church was built, however, on the lot of the old St. 
Paul's Church, which seems to have been used by any 
preacher who casually visited Augusta. Although it 
was the capital of the State, it was comparatively a 
small hamlet. The most of the houses were of logs, 
and the river crossed by a ferry.:}: Population increased 
rapidly after the revolution, and it soon became an im- 
portant commercial point. The western part of South 
Carolina, the western part of North Carolina, and all 
the settled parts of upper Georgia, as well as the In- - 
dian Countiy, did their trading there. 

At what time the first Methodist preacher visited 
Augusta, we are unable to say. It is more than proba- 



* BLshop Stevens' Memorial Sermon. 

f White's Historical Collections. if White's Statistics. 



416 



HISTORY OF METHODlSxM 



ble that Thomas Iliiniphries and John Major visited it 
before Asbnry came, which he did for the first time in 
1789. On this visit he does not seem to have tarried in 
the town, bnt pushed forward to Hayne's, on Uchee 
Creek. Augusta at this date was a considerable town, 
with a newspaper and a tlieatre, but without any reli- 
gious service or any organized bod}^ of Christians. When 
Asbury came the next year, he rode to near where 
Brothersville is now located, and stopped with Samuel 
Clarke. Although he was in Georgia and in Augusta 
several times, he does not seem to have preached in it 
until 1796, when he preached in St. Paul's Church. 
This was the first time a Methodist Bishop ever preaclied 
in Augusta. An effort had been made, however, to 
establish the Church there on his first visit to Georgia, 
and James Connor, a promising young preacher, had been 
appointed to it as a station in 1789. His health was feeble, 
and during the year he died in V^irginia."^ It is there- 
fore probable that he went to Yirginia immediately 
after conference, and never returned to Georgia, and 
was never for any length of time in Augusta. Hope 
Hull, after his location, was sent to the city ; but if he 
went, he did not accomplish anything. It is probable 
that now and then one of those plain, sober, peculiar 
men who ti'avelled the circuits adjoining may have 
visited the gay capital of the State, and gathei-ed a fevv^ 
hearers in some remote house ; l)ut if he did, no success 
attended his efforts. Thus it was till 1798. Tlie father 
of Aumista Methodism was now at hand. 

Among the Virginians who were drawn to Augusta 
by its business advantages was Col. Wm. Mead, a 



* Minutes. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-18G5. 



417 



wealthy Yirginiaii. Two of his daughters were mar- 
ried and were living there/'' His son Stitl], a thought- 
ful boY, came with him, and attended the old Augusta 
Academy. Stith had been religiously impressed from 
conversation with liis father's negro servants, and had 
sought to find peace for his disturbed conscience by 
close attention to what he believed to be his relia'ious 
duties. He was still unhappy, and went to Virginia. 
Here he attended a camp-meeting in Bedford County, 
and was converted. He entered at once into the Vir- 
ginia Conference, and travelled there seven years. He 
then came to Augusta. He said he found a city of 
4,000 inhabitants, in which there was no organized 
church, and, as far as he could see, not one of the peo- 
ple knew their right hand from their left in religion. 
He began his labors, and preached one sermon in the 
church. His sermon so offended his hearers that the 
church was thereafter closed against him. His rela- 
tives, some of whom in after-time were devoted Metho- 
dists, were so opposed to his fanaticism that they closed 
their doors against him. He found a private house in 
which to preach f — the house of Ebene?:er Doughty, 
and in 1798 he organized a society, which consisted of 
six members.:}: The society increased, and a meeting- 
house was a necessity. He secured a lot in the then 
Commons, on what is now Greene Street, and when 
Asbury came in 1800, he found that Mead had a 
foundation and a frame prepared for the erection of a 
two-story house. Mead gave $500 out of his own proper- 
ty, and by his influence and energy raised money 
enough to fit the house for occupancy. § Asbury thought 



♦ Bennett. f ^^id t Jbid. § Ibid. 

18- 



418 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



it was commodious and elegant, and the congregation 
large and attentive. 

The cluirch building which Stith Mead had erected 
was located on the same lot on which the present St. 
John's Church stands. It was then almost out of town, 
in the upper part of the city. The business part of the 
town was the lower part of Broad Street, on Bridge 
Kow, and along the river banks. The most elegant 
residences, if any could be called elegant, were below^ 
Avhere is the present lower market-house. The only other 
church building was the St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 
and around it at that time was the city cemetery. 

The church ^vas 40x60 feet, with two rows of win- 
dows.^ It was of wood, and perfectly plahi ; there 
was a gallery for the colored people, and a few years 
afterwards there was a small belfry. This church, un- 
changed, served the people until John Howard came 
in 1822, and the church was added to, making it longer. 
Success now attended Mead's efforts, and he had soon a 
society of sixty members. This was the first organized 
body of Christians in Augusta after the Revolution. 
The Presbyterian Church was organized about 1808, 
and the Baptist Church some ten years later. As far 
as we can discover, there was no regular rector to the 
Episcopal Church until later still, when the new St. 
Paul's Church was built. 

Who composed this first society ? Ebenezer Doughty 
was a member, the mother of John H. Mann was another, 
and probably her daughters. If Asaph Waterman was 
not one of the first, he was a member as early as 1804, 
when Di\ Pierce first came to Augusta.f 



* Asbury's Journal. 



f Dr. Pierce. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



419 



Mead remained in charge of the churchy which was 
inchided in the circuit, until 1801, when it was made a 
station, and John Garvin was the stationed preacher. 
He was an Englishman by birth, having been born in 
"Windsor, Jan. 30, 1763. He was converted in Ireland, 
and preached his first sermon in London in 1792, and 
immediately went to Africa, where lie remained four 
years. He reached America in 1797, and reported 
himself to Asbury for w^ork. We have seen that he 
went, in company with Jesse Lee, to lay out a circuit in 
the extreme southeastern part of Georgia, early in 1799. 
In 1801 he came to Augusta. In 1803 he married Sarah 
Few, who survived him many years, and who was noted 
for her deep piety. He was a man of good native parts, 
and an excellent English scholar. After his location he 
taught school in Augusta, and when the Presbj^terians 
had no pastor, he preached regularly for them for one 
year, in the old St. Paul's Church. He was quite pop- 
ular in the city of his residence, and married most of 
those who were coupled together in the city and its 
vicinity.^ .He died in 1816 in great peace, leaving a 
most excellent widow^ and a son, Ignatius P. Garvin, 
who for many years has been a leading member of the 
church of which his father was the first pastor. 

The next year, 1802, Levi Garrison came. He was 
a plain man of excellent religious character, but not 
the equal of those who had gone before him. The 
Church continued, however, to grow slowly, but it 
was embarrassed by debt, and needed a revival of 
religion. This year it received aid, both financial and 
ministerial, from a very unexpected quarter. 



Dr. Garvin. 



420 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



Asbury liad brought j^J"icliolas Siietlieu with lihn the 
year before. Snethen was a man of really wonderful 
eloquence and haS attracted much attention. Mead, and 
Asbury, and Garvin were far beyond the average of the 
preachers of that day, but none created so much noise 
as Lorenzo Dow, who came in 1802. One spring day 
he came on foot to Augusta. lie was dressed in the 
oddest manner imaginable. His hair and beard were 
long, and as he carried no baggage and his wardrobe 
v/as not extensive, his dress was far from neat. He 
carried with him a pocket full of tracts, which he 
distributed as he ran alono;. He moved accordino^ to 
his impressiors, and, under one of them, came to Au- 
gusta. He sought the hospitality of the Methodists, but 
no one would entertain him, and he finally found a 
home with a negro in what is now Hambm-g. He 
souglit out Levi Garrison, preacher in charge, and told 
him who he was ; but Garrison was naturally afraid of 
him, and did not ask him to preach. In another ciiap- 
ter we have already told more of him and of his adven- 
tures in the interior. When he returned to Augusta, 
Stith Mead, who knew him, and knew he was no com- 
mon man, invited him to preach. He did so. Bucli 
original, and yet such moving sernKms the people had 
never heard before, and laro-e cono^reofations flocked to 
hear him. He proposed they should have preaching at 
night, but they told him that even the great Snetlien 
could not get the people to night meetings. Dow, how- 
ever, tried and succeeded.* One m'ght he found tlio 
church door locked. The builder had not been paid, 
and he would give possession of the building no longer. 



* Dow's JoiirnaL 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



421 



Dow persuaded him to let him enter, and proposed to 
the congregation that tliey should pay the debt, propos- 
ing to pay ten dollars himself, lie raised a hundred 
dollars, and the worship went on. 

The next year John Garvin came to the city again, 
and Stitli Mead was presiding elder. 

During this year, 1804, the first South Carolina Con- 
ference ever held in Georgia was held in the house of 
Peter Cantalou, on Ellis Street. Bishop Asbury and 
Dr. Coke were present. The history of this conference 
we have given in the fourth chapter of this work. At 
the next conference Stith Mead, having been four years 
on the Georgia District, decided to return to Virginia. 
He was placed in cliarge of the Augusta Station, with 
Britton Capel as his junior. Capel was now an elder. 
He had travelled, from the time of his entrance into the 
tj'avelling ministry, circuits in the State. He was an 
energetic, earnest, and gifte^ man. His preaching, ac- 
cording to Dr. Pierce, was without system, but sparkled 
with gems of beautiful thoughts. He reported at the 
succeeding conference eighty white members and sev- 
enteen colored. Whether Mead remained the year 
through we caimot say. He was a presiding elder on 
the Richmond District, in Virginia, during the next year, 
and was never afterwards more than an occasional vis- 
itor to Georgia. The city of Augusta, and indeed the 
whole State of Georgia, owes a deep debt of gratitude 
to this excellent Virginian. He was eminently a revi- 
^-alist, and the Church was quickened, and sinners were 
converted wherever he went. His heart was with the 
church he had planted in Augusta, and he was cheered 
to see its progress. 

The next year Hugh Porter came. He was a short, 



422 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



stout man, full of revival fire, and niucli attached to 
Atigusta in after-life. During this year, by some nieans, 
a bell was secured. It was placed in the little belfry of 
which we have spoken. When Bishop Asbury came he 
saw it witli horror. It was an innovation — the first bell 
lie had seen in any of our meeting-houses in America. 
He said it w^as the first ; he hoped it would be the last. 
It was cracked ; he hoped it would break.^ Poi*ter 
seems to have good success, since he reports one hundred 
members at conference. Bishop Asbury does not seem 
to have been pleased with some things he saw, and says 
these youngsters need looking after— evidently referring 
to something Plugh Porter had done. He says he had 
a high time at the church, but does not explain his 
meaning. 

At the Conference of 1806, Lovick Pierce, just be- 
ginning his third year in the ministry, came from the 
Apalachee Circuit to Augusta. He had been on a cir- 
cuit reaching to the frontier, and w^as immensely popu- 
lar among his people. He brought with him to a — for 
that time — large and fashionable city the wardrobe the 
good people of his circuit had provided. It was of 
homespun material, in w^hich rabbit-fur had a consider- 
able place.f He was the only pastor in the city, and the 
youngest man who had ever filled the office there. Mead 
and Garvin had had much better advantages than him- 
self, and Capel more experience. He was very gifted, 
but was as timid as he was gifted. He was, however, a 
preacher, young as he ^vas, and had preached many more 
sermons already, and seen the results of his labor much 
more evident, than many a graduate of a theological 



* JournaL 



f Dr. Pierce. 



m GEOHGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



423 



school, after seven years in college and the semuiary. 
He soon adapted himself to his new surroundings. In 
tlie pleasant household of Asaph Waterman he found 
a home, and soon took on all the polish of the really 
good society of the young city. He at once attracted 
attention, and had large and appreciative congregations. 
He was the instrument of doing great good, and of 
course excited opposition from the sons of Belial. As 
he walked down the streets, the young men of the city 
would stand at the street-corners and groan in imitation 
of Methodist responses. He had a small pastorate and 
abundant time for study, and this for the first time 
since he had entered upon his ministry. He improved 
every moment. The membership^of the Church increased 
during his stay. The next year Reddick, his brother, 
came. We have already spoken of him. He was now 
in the vigor of his youth, and was a preacher of no ordi- 
nary power. 

The Church was not strong, and preachers were very 
scarce; and now that the capital of the State was 
removed to Louisville, this little town and Augusta were 
united in one charge, and John Collingsworth and John 
Rye were sent to them. Among the members of the 
society at this time was Asaph Waterman. He was 
from New England, and had no doubt been religiously 
educated. There was no other Christian body in Augusta 
except the Methodists, and he was drawn to them. He 
cast in his lot with them, and was for many years a true 
pillar of the Church. He had come to the South a 
mechanic, but he entered into mercantile life, and was 
successful in amassing a handsome fortune. The Meth- 
odists were poor, and his house became the home of the 
preachers. He lighted the church, led the class, and 



424 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



entertained all the Methodist preachers who passed 
through the citv. He was a quiet, steady-going, gener- 
ous, plain Christian, Methodist in dress as well as iu 
character. He always wore a C' ^at of blue broadcLjth, 

cut in Methodist stvle. so that it was ideasantlv said of 
I. . it 

liini that Asaph Vrateruian had not had a ne\r coat in 
thirty years. His first wife died and left liiui childless. 
He then niari'ied Mildred Meals, a young wid<:»w wlio 
was originally Mildred Bostwick. and a sister of Stephen 
Oliii's wife. IS'o union could have been happier — no 
two Christian people could have labored together more 
harmoniously for the Chui'cli's welfare. 

Their home was the abiding place uf the preacher in. 
charge, and the resting-place of every weary itinerant 
who passed through the city. Asbury, Whatc-jat. Mc- 
Kendree, Hedding, Soule. Andrew. Emory. Capers, 
were all his guests. He was able to disti'ibute. he was 
ready to communicate, and given to hospitality. 

A careful Inisiness man, he was blessed with abun- 
-dance, and he was a very Publius in his devotion to 
Church interests. 

He was emphatically a Metliodist. His h(;nisehold, 
his private life, his lousiness alfairs. and indeed all his 
movements Avere methodical. On the same day in May. 
in every year, by the same route, stopping at the same 
houses, he went to the same home in Buncombe County, 
Is'. C. and on the same day in October, he retmiied to 
Augusta. Without him. or one like hin], it woidd have 
been almost impossible for Methodism to have retained 
the footing she had gained in Augusta, since the support 
of a pastor would have been an impossibility. In 1S'J9, 
Jolni H. Mann, whose mother was among the lirst Meth- 
odists in the city, joined the Church ; for over sixty years 



IX GErJlXirlX AXD FLORIDA, 1TS5 iSGo. 



lie was aleadiiio' member in it. He was a man of o;reat 
humor, and preserved his love of fun despite his consis- 
tent Methodism even toliis old age. A careful, competent 
business man, he vras blessed by a kind Providence with 
sufficieiicj, and was always ready to do wdiat lie could 
for his struggling Chnrch. He was an official member 
of the Church for over sixty years, and an active one 
for a large part of that time. He w^as as steady-going 
as a clock. Tlie services of the Sabbath, the class- 
meetings during the week, and the prayer-meetings 
might always rely upon him. His house was the home 
of all the preachers who passed through the city after 
Asaph Waterman died. Capers, Andrew, Di-. Pierce, 
Stephen Olin, were all sharers of his hospitality, and 
were his cherished friends. He was the father of Dv 
Alfred T. Mann, of the Korth Georgia Conference, and of 
the first wife of Rev. Dr. Clark, of the South Ge( rgia 
Conference. His wife, who travelled beside him for over 
fifty years, and after passing her threescore and ten years 
sank to sleep, was a meet companion for such a man. She 
w^as of those saintly women who made the Chui'ch of Au- 
gusta such a power for good in after-time. AVliile Meth- 
odism in most communities made her conquests among 
the poor and humble, yet among those who were drawn to 
her, there were always some from the upper and the mid- 
dle classes of the people. It required much courage in 
those days for a woman, especially a young and beauti- 
ful girl moving in the higher circles of society, to go to 
the humble meetinghouse on the commons, and to abjure 
the vanities of the world by surrendering ribbons and 
feathers and bows, and wdien one did this, it was proof 
of the fact that she was fully determined to give up the 
world; and this many did. 



42C 



HISTORY OP METHODISM 



Nor were these from among tlie poorer classes alone. 
The most distingm'shed and wealthy families in the State 
were represented in the early Church. Flournoys, 
Taits, Remberts, Glasscock, Cobbs, Few, Meriwether, 
Gihners and many others were among the early Method- 
ists, and there were some of these even iu fashionable 
Augusta, but the bulk of the membership were plain 
peoj^le — artisans and laborers. The wealth of the Church 
was small, and it was with some difficulty that they could 
support a single man. Of Collingsworth we have already 
spoken. Abda Christian and Henry D. Green followed 
Collingsworth, although there was a great revival in the 
country, and although there had been precious meetings 
in Augusta, the number of members continued near- 
ly the same as during the stay of Hugh Porter, and of 
Lovick Pierce. Now there was increase and then again 
decline, but the number varied little. It was a period 
of trial to the young Church. Augusta was a godless, 
fashionable young city. In that inimitable book the 
Georgia Scenes^ in the account of the gander-pulling, we 
have not a more fanciful conception of what might 
liave been but an accurate account of what a shrewd 
fun-loving boy saw himself; and in that sketch we have 
a view of what boys in Augusta sometimes saw, and an 
account of the surroundings of the city. Campbellton, 
near where Hamburg now is, and Harrisburg were vil- 
lages near by ; the trade of the city came by wagons 
from the West and Northwest, and the South and 
Southwest ; and flatboats came with their loads of cot- 
ton, and corn, and bacon from up the Savamiah. There 
w^as much business done, and there was much fun, frolic, 
and dissipation. Methodism was as new in its features 
to the gay people of that city when Stith Mead first 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-18(>5. 427 



preached there and began his revival exercises, as 
Cliristiariity was new to the people of Corinth ; and while 
it does not seem to have met with the active persecution 
which was its part in Charleston, and while no Intend- 
ant forbade the assembling of the people before sunrise, 
and no angry mobs dragged the preacher to the pum.p, as 
in Charleston, yet the Cliiirch did not advance rapidly, 
neither among the whites nor the negroes. The colored 
people of the city, as in Savannah, were most of them 
Baptists. This is easily explained when it is remember- 
ed that the Baptists in Virginia were for many years 
almost the only evangelical body, and that most of the 
colored people who came South were Baptists. This 
was not so in South Carolina, and now Methodism reaped 
a great harvest among the negroes there, and this per- 
secution in Charleston arose largel}" from a misconcep- 
tion of the aims of the Methodists in relation to the in- 
stitution of slavery, and the social position of the negroes. 
In Augusta and Savannah, no such great success attend- 
ed the efforts of the preachers among the colored people 
as in Charleston. 

In 1812 John Porter, the brother of Hugh, came. He 
was a small, slender man whose sermons were full of 
pathos, and who was called the weeping prophet. He 
had good success in his work, and during the year there 
w^as a net increase of over twenty members. Save these 
lifeless figures which the minutes give us, we know 
nothing of the history of these years, and but little of 
the workers in the city and of their co-laborers among 
the laymen. 

In 1813 Lucius Q. C. de Yampert, whose name be- 
came afterward so famous in Alabama for princely 
benevolence, was sent to the station. Bishop Wight- 



428 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



man, who knew ]iim well, has Idiidly furnished the fol- 
lowino; sketch of him : 

" I saw Luchis Q. C. de Yainpert for the first time at 
liis own residence in Ferry County, Alabama. On my 
Avay to Greensboro', in the summer of 1859, I stopped 
and spent a night with him. The stage-coach drove up 
to his gate about dinner-time, and I passed througli 
gromids very tastefully improved to a stately mansion. 
When my name w^as announced, brother de Yampert 
came to the door with a most cordial greeting. I had 
known him years before by reputation, having often 
heard m}^ friend Thomas W. Williams, of Abbeville 
District, speak of him in terms of affectionate admira- 
tion. His appearance was different from the notion I 
had formed of him. Instead of being a small, spare, 
elastic man, I found him large, venerable-looking, courtly 
in his manners, deliberate, and w^eighty in speech — 
the vivacity of the French blood that was in him break- 
ing out only occasionally. I have rarely, in a long life, 
enjoyed, as I did that evening, the flow of animated 
conversation. The Southern Universit}^, of which he 
was one of the founders, and which was to open its 
doors in a month or two. came in, of course, for the 
'lion's share' of talk. lie made the impression, fnlly 
confirmed by many a subsequent conversation, that he 
was a man whose mental habit led him carefully to the 
root and principle of things ; who sought to apprehend 
the causes of facts and events, instead of resting in mere 
facts ; w^ho had pushed his investigations fearlessly 
into all sorts of questions, while yet restrained by a 
sound nnderstanding from extravagant speculation for 
the mere sake of speculation. I considered him a man 
of profound practical wisdom, and certainly his energy 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, lT8o-lS65. 



429 



and activity were in good keeping with his wisdom. 
The management of his large plantations in the most 
fertile lands of Alabama, would bear a weii>']itv charo;e 
to a man twenty years younger, yet he always had time 
to devote to the society of his friends. 

After I had become intimate with him, on one occa- 
sion returning from church, where he had enjoyed a 
season of special religious refreshment, he reverted in 
conversation to the days of his active but brief ministry. 
He said with peculiar emotion, ' Sir, those few years 
when I was a young Methodist preacher, though strug- 
gling with poor health and narrow means, were un- 
doubtedly the happiest of my life.' lie then gave me 
the outUne of those years. In IS 12 he was admitted on 
trial in the South Carolina Conference in a class that 
consisted of twenty-one, several of whom rose to emi- 
nence in the ministry. His first circuit was Sparta, Jos. 
Tarpley being j^residing elder of the district. The next 
year he was preacher in charge of Augusta. This was 
an indication of great promise on his part, he being not 
yet in orders. His resources were of course taxed, both 
in the pulpit and the pastoral field. 

" His style of address was always earnest, sometimes 
very impassioned ; and his health became impaired. 
Nevertheless, having great force of will, he did not 
suffer hin:iself to be discouraged. He hoped that an 
appointment in the up-country might restore his health. 
Accordingly he was sent the next year to the Eeedy 
River Circuit, in the Piedmont country of South Caro- 
lina. Plis fourth and last appointment was the Broad 
River Circuit in Middle Geoi'gia. Here his heaUli 
broke down utterly. He was forced to the conclusion 
that he could do nothing more in the travelling minis^ 



430 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



try. Most reluctantly he gave it up. As soon as lie 
was again able to ride, lie made, in company with John 
Porter, a young preacher who was also in bad health, a 
long journey on horseback to the T^orth-w^est, travelling 
such stages as his strengtli could bear, and returned 
somewhat improved in health. But his deliberate con- 
viction was that he would never again be able to do the 
hard woi-k required of a travelling preacher in those 
days. Sorrowfully he turned his face toward secular 
life; purchased a farm, married, and went into agri- 
cultural pursuits, just as his health allowed. In the 
course of yeai'S he recovered entireh^ While at this 
home in Abbeville District, S. C, Dr. Olin, w^ho w^as 
an invalid, spent several months with him in tlie springs 
of 1825 and 1826. Of the latter of tliese visits Dr. 
Olin writes to Bishop Andrew the following : ' I have 
been. so busy with the plough, or so weary with it, that 
I could not conveniently write before. I commenced 
my rustic exercises immediatelj^ after my return from 
Augusta. From half an hour's work, with which I 
began, I have gradually risen to four or five hours per 
day. My bodily strength has perceptively improved, 
and that without any injury, to say the least, to my 
lungs. I am more and more persuaded that my nerves 
have been and ai-e the chief sufferers.' This plough 
experiment may be safely recommended to other young 
preachers 'temporarily laid aside from the active work 
of the ministry by nervous disorders or threatened soft- 
ening of the brain, especially if they should be so fortu- 
nate as to fall into the hands of people as kind and as 
congenial as the De Tamperts. 

" My old friend, some five or six yeai's afterward, left 
Abbeville and I'emoved to Alabama. He w^as fortunate 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



431 



in purchasing canebrake lands at government j)rices. 
His sagacity and energy soon secured an ample estate. 
He was, to his last days, the kind friend to Methodist 
ministers. His religious convictions were fixed and his 
religious enjoyments increased as time went on. He 
bore his last illness with the calm fortitude of a Christian 
philosopher, and died with his faith and hope resting on 
the old foundation." 

Whitman C. Hill, Solomon Bryan, and John B. 
Glenn, came in 1814 and 1815 and 1816. They were 
efficient circuit preachers, and no doubt did good work 
in the city ; but it was a period of religious stagnation, 
and Augusta stood almost at the same point she had 
occupied from 1806. There were not more members 
in the Church when Samuel Dunwody came in 1817, 
than when Lovick Pierce left in 1807. In 1817 Samuel 
Dunwody came. He was a preacher of rare ability, 
and was a great favorite in Augusta, though he reaped 
no o-reat harvest. But the Church was on eve of a o-reat 
revival, and ere another twelvemonth had passed, the 
blessed shower of grace was to fall. The Church had 
now been established in the city for nearly a score of 
years. Although its membership was not large, it was 
a devoted body. The very scorn heaped upon it made 
its members a more earnest people. Henry Bass was 
sent to the city in 1819. Samuel K. Hodges was pre- 
siding elder. Henry Bass, who had joined the confer- 
ence in 1812, had now, for seven years, been a laborious 
and successful preacher. He was not perhaps a brilliant 
man, nor a man of very warm emotions, but he was a 
clear-headed and decided one, whose heart, sanctified by 
divine grace, was in his work. Samuel IL. Hodges, the 
presiding elder, was an efiicient, earnest preacher. He 



HLSTOKY OF METHODISM 



was ill Augusta holding the quarterly meeting. At the 
love-feast, an opportunity to unite with the Churcli was 
given, and twenty-six persons offered themselves for 
membership. It was as unexpected as it was gratify- 
ing. Among these was a young widow, afterward the 
wife of Asaph Waterman. Her parents had occupied 
prominent positions as people of influence and wealtlu 
She had been taught to love the Methodists by a saintly 
old lady who taught her in school in Louisville, when 
she was a little child. She would have joined the so- 
ciety, but her dread of the peculiarities of dress was 
followed by a sense of her own unfitness, as she thought, 
for church membership ; but the excellent Mrs, Genl. 
Flouruoy encouraged her, and that morning she rose, 
and gave her hand to tlie preacher, and twenty-five 
followed lier. The work went on during the whole year, 
and at the end of it Augusta reported 133 members. 
Ilenry Bass left the city this year, but not alone, for, 
having served the Church faithfully for seven j^ears, he 
felt that he was entitled to a helpmeet, and married a 
Miss Love, one of the most excellent of the young 
sisterhood, and James O. Andrew came. He was now 
a married man w^ith two children. For the first time 
the station had a family to support. Asaph Waterman 
gave the young family a home until a parsonage could 
be built. The church lot was a large one, and on one 
corner of it a little wooden house ^vas erected. Tiiis 
was the second parsonage in the State. But as yet the 
church had no financial system, and although James O. 
Andrew was in the glory of his strength, and although 
the splendor of his eloquence delighted his people, yet 
the support accorded liim was entirely insufficient, and 
at last his heart began to fail him, and he determined 



IN GEOKGIA AND FLOHIDA, 1785-1865. 



433 



to locate and go into a profession. It was for the sake 
of Amelia and her children, that this resolution was 
reluctantly made ; but when he mentioned it to her, she 
Avould not hear of it. He should preach, and she would 
work, and so she plied her busy needle to support the 
family."^ He remained that year and returned the next. 

At that time the labors of a preacher were very 
heavy. Sunday at 11 a.m., 3 p.m., and nights, and 
Wednesday night there was a sermon ; Friday night, a 
pi-ayer-meeting, and then at other times special classes 
for the preacher to lead. This in connection with pas- 
toral service made his life a busy one. 

John Howard came after Andrew. He, too, was, as 
we have seen, a ver}^ gifted and attractive preacher, and 
while he was here it became necessary to enlai-ge the 
church, which was done by adding twenty feet to its 
length. There was a gracious revival during this year, 
and Methodism continued to grow strongei*. Then 
came Lovick Fierce, who had returned to the work. 

It had been seventeen years since, a timid boy, he came 
to Augusta as his first station^ but these intervening 
years had been spent in constant labor for improve- 
ment. He had secured an advanced medical educa- 
tion, and had spent his term at the Fhiladelphia Medi- 
cal Colleo^e, but while p-ivino; himself to scientific 
studies, he had made them tributary to his ministry. 
His family were located in Greensboro', and he did not 
remove them, but he spent three-fourths of his time on 
his station. He was succeeded by George Hill. Augusta 
had now over 300 members, black and white, and de- 
manded such a pulpit supply as the conference could 



♦ Bishop Andrew told this to my father, Dr. G. G. Smith.— G. G. S. 

19 



434 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



not always furnish. For four years it liad been served 
by James O. Andrew, John Howard, and Lovick Pierce, 
the leading preachers of the conference. Geo. Hill, 
while a most devoted and nseful man, was not equal in 
ability to either of them, and the church did not in- 
crease, but rather declined under his pastorate. Samuel 
Dunwoody came again, and there was still decline. Wil- 
liam M. Kennedy, whom we have noted as being on 
the Washington Circuit years before, had now reached 
the front rank among preachers in his conference, and 
was sent for two years in charge of the station. These 
were fruitful years, and at the end of the second, the 
membership was greater than it had ever been, amount- 
ing to nearly 400 members, black and white. Nicolas 
Talley was the presiding elder. After such a succes- 
sion of gifted men, the church had become somewhat 
fastidious, and earnestly solicited the presiding elder to 
have Dr. Capers appointed to the station. The pi'esid- 
iug elder was not unwilling for such a result, and it may 
be, promised to use his influence to secure it. But wdio 
knows the secrets of the Bishop's portfolio? To the 
dismay of Talley, when the appointments were read 
out, not Wm. Capers, but JS'icolas Talley, was sent to 
Augusta. It would have been painful enough for the 
presiding elder for any other man but Wm. Capers to 
have been sent, but when that man was the very one 
who was expected to secure his appointment, it was 
doubly painful. The people were bitterly disappointed, 
and perhaps resentful, and the preacher thought at first 
that he must ask to be released, but he did better. He 
went to the station, and to hard work ; he prayed and 
preached, and the result was a great revival, and 
Augusta reported nearly 100 new members that 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



435 



year. Elijah Sinclair came in 1829, and there was 
a decrease of sixty members. Henry Bass came to his 
old charge in ISoO, and spent his last year of service 
in Georgia in the commnnity in which he had snch 
success years ago; but there was still further decline, 
and Augusta, which had reported nearly 300 members, 
reported only 225 at the end of the year 1830. In 1831, 
James O. Andrew was sent a second time to his old 
charge, and Wm. Arnold was the presiding elder. At 
no period of his life was Bishop Andrew ever more 
powerful in the pulpit and more useful in the pastorate. 
During the year there was a net increase of over 100, 
white and colored. Of these a large number were 
colored. It was a notable fact that that great man who 
was immolated on the altar of a professed devotion to 
the colored race, had all his life been so remarkable for 
his disinterested love for that people, and his untiring 
labor for their benefit. The work of the pastorate in 
Augusta was very heavy, and as he was selected for the 
delegate to the general conference, an assistant was 
decided upon, and Geo. F. Pierce was selected for 
the place. When the preacher in charge returned 
from Philadelphia a Bishop, the assistant was made 
pastor. Acting upon the rule we adopted in the 
beginning of this history, which was to leave all eulo- 
gium upon living men to an after- time, and yielding 
to what we know would be his wish, we are not now 
to speak of the wonderful success of the young 
preacher in his first pastorate. The office fell upon 
young shoulders, for he was but little past his ma- 
jority, but he bravely met the demands made upon 
him. During the year there was a precious revival, 
and a net increase of over 100 members. 



43G 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



EHjali Sinclair returned to Augusta a second time in 
1833. There was no increase reported during that year. 
The next year Jesse Boring was sent to the station. He 
had done much hard work and had been very successful 
in the western part of the State. He was now about 
thirty years of age, and had diligently improved^ from 
his first entrance into the work, his wonderful native 
powers. He spent only one year on the station, and 
George V. Pierce came again, when he was placed on 
the District. The next j^ear Whiteford Smith, a young 
Carolinian, not yet an elder, was sent to take his place. 
He was then, as he is now, a preacher of great accepta- 
bility, and his labors were blessed during the year with 
a revival, and a net increase of over forty was reported 
to the conference. Although Augusta had been so 
blessed in her preachers since 1833, there had been de- 
cline in numbers as they are reported in the minutes : 
the report of this year showing 245 in 1836, against over 
300 of the year 1833. These fluctuations are accounted 
for by the mode of keeping the old records where pro- 
bationers were reported as being in the society. Often 
the whole list of probationers was cleared by dropping 
those who were not ready for membership, after they 
had been borne with sufficient time, and we may con- 
jecture that this was the case in Augusta. Whiteford 
Smith was returned the second time in 1837. Isaac 
Boring, who had been serving one of the hardest districts 
in Georgia, was now sent to this city with young Walter 
R. Branham in his second year as assistant. It was 
the first considerable city Isaac Boring had served, and 
he and his colleague entered upon the work with much 
distrust of themselves. They, however, gave themselves 
to hard pastoral work^ to faithful preaching, and their 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 17^5-1865. 



437 



labors were richly rewarded, and sixty-five new mem- 
bers were reported to the conference. This was in 1S3S. 

In 1839, Judge Longstreet, who had removed to Au- 
gusta, and who had determined to give himself to the 
service of the Clmrch, w^as sent as junior preacher with 
Caleb W. Key, who was preacher in charge. During 
the year, while the senior preacher was on a visit up the 
country, the fearful yellow fever made its appearance 
in the city. Judge Longstreet resided on the Sand Hills, 
but came to tow^n every morning to his office. He now 
laid aside everything else, and all the day was assiduous 
in attentions to the sick, xls soon as the senior preacher 
heard that the epidemic was raging, lie returned, and 
locating his family near the city, he ga\'e himself to his 
labors until he w^as attacked by fever himself. It was 
a dark year. From the midst of the summer till the 
white frosts of autnmn fell, the air was poisoned, and 
one after another sank nnder its deathly influence. But 
when frost came the fever ceased, and tlie conference 
was able to assemble at its regular session in December. 

In 1840 James Sewell, who had been in the Baltimore 
Conference for many years, was stationed in Angusta. 
He was a very eccentric man, but one of real gifts. He 
made his congregations weep often, and smile always. 
His gestures were oddly expressive. In describing the 
yoking of oxen he would imitate the motions of patient 
animals, and do snch things in so natnral a way that 
serious looks were almost impossible. Nor were his 
oddities confined to the pulpit. Walking the streets of 
Charleston, one day, he saw^ a drnnkard wdio had fallen 
at the door of a saloon. He walked into the room and 
told the barkeeper politely his sign had fallen down, 
and then left him to discover the real state of the case. 



438 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



Oil taking a collection in Baltimore after his return from 
the South, and looking at the quantity of copper coin, 
he said : " Alexander the coppersmith has done me 
much harm." While this odd preacher amused the con- 
m-e^rations and interested all, he does not seem to have 
accomplished much, and left the station, with diminished 
numbers, to Alexander Speer, who, as always, was suc- 
cessful in increasing the membership, which he did this 
vear over fifty members : but still the Church record 
does not present so many names as it did ten years 
before; only 285 again t 300. Why was this? Apart 
from the fact that the gracious revival influence whicli 
had pervaded the Church from 1820 to 1830 had to 
some extent ceased, the condition of the Church in 
the city was to be attributed to its own want of aggres- 
siveness. The only church-building of the Methodists 
was that wliich had been erected by Stith Mead, and to 
which additions had been made wlien John Howard was 
pastor. Althougli the city had increased so much in 
^vealth, and the other church-buildings were so much 
more comelj^, and although many of the Methodist peo- 
ple were now wealthy and living in handsome homes, 
yet the old uncomely church of nearly fifty years ago, 
and the little four-roomed parsonage, were all the MetJi- 
odists had in the city. This old church, though it was 
so endeared by precious memories, was no longer fitted 
for the needs of the congregation ; and, although the 
old parsonage had fui-nished a home for some of the 
princes of Methodism, yet it was unworthy of the city ; 
so it was decided to have better buildings. Then, too, 
the work of the pastorate was too heavy fcjr any one 
\ man. There were nearly 600 members, black and wdiite, 

and all were under care of the preacher in charge. The 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



439 

r 



services at the cliurcli occupied all his time, and there 
was no opportunity for mission-work. In 1843 Geo. F. 
Pierce for the third time was stationed in Augusta, and 
James E. Evans was his presiding elder. During the 
year there was an increase of thirty members. The 
pastor was returned with an assistant, Sampson I. 
Turner, or, as he was called afterwards, Jackson P. 
Turner. During this year the present St. Jolm's Church 
was built. It was a handsome building, worthy in every 
way of the people. During the year the membership 
increased about twenty members ; and now, in the forty- 
fifth year of Methodism in Augusta, there wei'e 335 
white members. 

We have now reached the period at which our sketch 
of the Methodist Church in Georgia finds a natural 
stopping place, and of these after-years a detached his- 
tory of the work of the older cities can scarcely be 
needed. We give, however, a list of the preachers who 
came after this date to the division of the stations into 
other charges : 

1845. Josiah Lewis. 

1846. A. T.Mann. 

1847. James E. Evans. 

1848. James E. Evans, Thomas F. Pierce. 

1849. G. J. Pearce. 
1850-1. W. G. Connor. 

1852. Jackson P. Turner. > ^ 

1853. James E. Evans. 

1854. James E. Evans, J. O. A. Clark. 

These came before the division of the Augusta 
charge, but in the year 1854 this was effected. From 
the erection of the new church in 1845, the church had 
steadily advanced in numbers and in influence. The 



440 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



city itself had rapidly improved. Factories had been 
built, new railroad lines connected it with the interior, 
but the church grew more rapidly than tlie city. 
Although the church-building was very large and with 
large galleries, it was often filled to overfl.()wing. The 
membership had more than doubled itself in nine years. 
The colored people assisted by their white friends had 
built a neat and commodious church, and had 596 com- 
municants who were served by a regular missionary. 
Another church was now a necessity, and through the 
efforts of James E. Evans the pastor, the Church of St. 
James, a neat brick building, was erected on the lower 
part of Greene Street. It was completed by the confer- 
ence of 1855, and Alfred T. Mann was sent to St. 
John's, and Wm. Crumley v/as sent to St. James's. At 
the succeeding conference 225 members w^ere reported 
from St. James', and 330 from St. John's. During the 
summer of the year 1856 a Sunday-school was estab- 
lished at the factory in a room fuiiiished by the companj'. 
It was superintended by Henry F. Eussell, Esq., one 
of the most zealous of the laymen of St. John's, assisted 
by Charles E. Mustin. The excellent wife of Dr. Mann, 
the daughter of Dr. Pierce, was one of the first teachers 
in it. In a praj^er-jneeting in the school there was 
great religious feeliiig evident, and Dr. Mann began a 
series of prayer-meetings. Many w^ere converted, and 
a lar2:e class was organized, and placed under chai'ge of 
a young bi'other then living in the city, but who has 
since entered the conference. The result of these 
efforts was the establishment of the Asbury Church. 
The factory company gave liberally to the erection of 
the church and parsonage, and to the support of the 
pastor. Indeed, too much cannot be said in commenda- 



IN GEOKGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



441 



tioii of the effort of that corporation to secure religious 
instruction for their people. After the organization of 
tlie colored Methodist Episcopal Cliurch, the colored 
members of the Church in Augusta, who had been faith- 
ful to the Church of their early love when most of the 
colored people in the State had been carried away by 
outside influence, became connected with that body. 
There are now" in Augusta tliree excellent churches, 
which reported at the conference of 1874, a member- 
ship of 1,457 white members, three churches, three par- 
sonages, $80,000 in church property, and $10,000 for 
various religious interests. The old four-roomed par- 
sonage long since gave way to a neat and commodious 
building on the church lot, and furnished the church at 
St. John's with a parsonage. The St. James' congrega- 
tion early erected an elegant and VvT.11 -located house for 
the preacher near the church, and the Asbury charge, 
with the assistance of the factory company, have pro- 
vided a neat and well-furnished brick house for their 
pastor. The old fathers have all passed away. Jno. 
II. Mann was the last of them. He lived to near ninety 
years, an active old man to the last ; then the weary 
wheels of life stopped gently still, and he passed from 
us. The patriarchs of the Church are nearly all gone. 
Mildred Waterman upon the verge of the river waits 
the call of her Master. Harriet Glascock, Sister Crump, 
Sister Mann, Sister Flournoy, and many others have 
passed beyond. Their works do follow them. The 
South Carolina Conference before the division held 
several sessions of that body in Augusta. 

In 1804. Bishops Coke and Asbury, Presidents. 

In 1818. Bishops George and McKendree. 

In 1822. Bishops McKendree and George. 



442 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



In 1827. Bishops McKeiidree, Roberts, and Soule. 
After the division, in 1S32. Bishop Hedding. 
In 1839. Bishop Morris. 
In 1849. Bishop Gapei-s 
In 1860. Bishop Pierce. 
In 1870. Bishop Pierce. 

This sketch ought not to find its close without some 
account of the Sunday-school work in the city. 

We have been able to secure no authentic account of 
any Sunday-school in Augusta before 1819, when a 
Union School was organized of wliich Dr. Mann was a 
member. When the new church was built in 1845 a 
Sunday-school room was proNdded under the parsonage. 
Wlien St. James' Church was erected in 1854, Wm. C. 
Derry was made superintendent of the new scliool, which 
was the first afternoon school in the city, and which soon 
became, what it still continues to be, the largest in the 
community. The Sunday-school cause has made steady 
progress througli the State, and in no city have the 
results of the work been more gratifying than in Au- 
gusta. 

Tlie city of Savannah is the oldest white settlement 
in Georgia. It was settled by Gen. James Oglethorpe, 
in 1732! 

Although the colony was under religious direction, 
and religious service was provided for the first settlers, 
and although some donations had been made by the 
trustees of the colony which looked toward a house of 
public wx)rship, yet nearly thirt}^ years passed by before 
a good church building was erected.^ This was done 
after the surrender of the charter to the Crown, and 



* Bishop Stevens. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



443 



after the Church of England was established in the 
colony. Two years after this the first Presbyterian 
church in the city was built. After the Revolution 
began, the rector of the Episcopal Church seems to 
have left the city. The church was burned down, and 
for some years there was no other building than the 
Presbyterian, and the Episcopalians and Presbyterians 
united together in public service. This they could do 
with greater ease, since the Episcopalians who gave any 
care to religious concerns were disciples of Mr. White- 
field, who was in the best odor with the Presbyterians. 

In 1801, Dr. Ilolcomb, a very gifted Baptist preacher, 
founded the Baptist Church in the city. Adam C. 
Cloud, a disciple of Mr. Haramett, and an Independent 
Methodist, came to Savannah some time before 1802, 
and secured a preaching place, and had, when Lorenzo 
Dow visited the city, a congregation of 60 persons. f 

In 1793, Hope Hull, who had been so successful 
elsewhere, was sent to Savannah. He secured a chair- 
maker's shop, and attempted his work, but so violent 
was the opposition of the mob, and so fruitless did he 
find the field, that he ceased his ministry in Savannah, 
and went back to Burke County. For over thirteen 
years Savannah, if visited by the Methodist preachers 
at all, was only casually visited ; but in Dec. of 1806, 
Samuel Dunwoody, then in his second year, was sent to 
this forlorn hope. Jno. A. Millen, a Presbyterian, 
gave him a home in his house, and by teaching a school 
lie managed to secure a livelihood. 

In Jan. of 1807, Jesse Lee, who had a roving com- 
mission for Georgia, visited Savannah, and after preach- 



* White. 



f Dow's Journal. 



444 



HISTORY OF MP:TH0DISM 



ing, invited all who had been members of the society 
elsewhere to meet him. Four did so : Billy and Peggy, 
two excellent colored people fi-om Georgetown, and 
two white persons, and so the first Methodist society in 
Savannah was formed/^ 

At the succeeding conference young Dunwoody re- 
ported seven members. The pulpit of Savannah, which 
w^as then only a town of a few thousand inhabitants, 
was well supplied. Dr. Holcomb was at the Baptist 
Church, and Dr. Kollock at the Presbyterian, and the 
Gernmri Lutherans had also a church ; Andrew Mar- 
shall was the preacher to the colored Baptists, and had 
a laro-e couOTCo-ation. What could Methodism do here? 
Dunwoody, always peculiar, and then quite young and 
nnpretending, was not likely to attract an.y consider- 
able congregation to the obscure room which he may 
have secured, but he remained the year through, and a 
preacher was appointed to the cit}^ every year from 
this time forward. J. 11. Mellard, John McYean, 
and Urban Cooper followed each other, but there 
was no success attending their labors. The member- 
ship did not increase from 1807 to 1812 ; three whites 
and four l)lacks were all. There was no church build- 
ings 

There was, at this time, no missionary society in ex- 
istence among the Methodists, and the fund raised for 
the missionary seiit to Savannah, was raised among the 
pi'eachers at conference. Lewis Myers says : " In 1807, 
when the South Carolina Conference laid siege to Savan- 
nah, if twenty dollars were collected, it was considered 
a passable purse to start with. Urban Cooper, having 



* Lee, Life and Times,. ?.nd Thrift's Life. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



445 



expended his last three-pence-half-penny, had to retire, 
from actual want of the necessaries of life ; and James 
Enssell, bare-foot and bare-legged, entered into the 
fields to procure provender for our troops in the war 
with England. I know this to be true." Amid such 
difficulties as this tlie seed of Methodism w^as sown in 
Savannah. Yet it was decided to build a church, and 
by a man who generally did w^iat he attempted. This 
was Lewis Myers. 

In 1812 he was on the Ogeechee District, which in- 
cluded Savannah. He determined that Methodism 
should have a foothold in Savannah, and that a church 
should be built. There were only three white members 
and four colored. But Myers had resolved to have a 
church, and he knew no failure. The Presbyterians, 
who have always been kind friends of the Methodists in 
Savannah, gave him assistance, especially Mr. Millen.^ 
Myers secured a lot in the lower part of the city, not 
far from the commons, and began to collect material 
for the building. lie was a delep-ate to the General 
conference in 1812, w^liich met in Baltimore, and that 
city, which has always been ready to respond to such 
appeals, gave him assistance. He labored hard to 
accomplish his work, and an amusing story of how hard 
was told by himself. The servant one morning Avent 
into his bedroom and found the bed already made ; 
knowing his peculiarities, the good lady of the house 
supposed that Bro. Myers had done the work Iiimself ; 
at the breakfast table she took him to task. The 
preacher made his explanation. He had gone in the 
room and knelt down to say his prayers. He was so tired 



* Myers' letter to South Carolina Advocate, 



446 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



from bis work that he fell asleep on liis kiiees^ and slept 
till the morning's dawn. 

At the conference of 1812, James Russell was sent 
to Savannah, and now for the first time there was some 
progress. The chnrch was not "finished, noi* was there 
means to support the preacher. Russell cut marsh-grass 
from the marslies, and sold it in the city, and preached 
on Sunday, bnt the man who had thrilled vast multi- 
tudes in the interior had no place here for the display 
of his wonderful powers. lie was preaching to a house- 
less flock, and conld make little impression in a commu- 
nity accustomed to the almost matchless eloquence of Dr. 
Ivollock, who was the great preacher of Savannah. He 
labored hard to finish the church, and did so, and as 
we have seen entered into trade to relieve himself from 
the debts he had unwisely contracted, in trying to 
finish it. The twenty-five members he gathered togeth- 
er now had a house to worship in, and regular services, 
and the number continued slowly but steadily to grow. 

James Russell remained two years, then James C. 
Koger was sent with him. His failure in business crip- 
pled the already feeble church, but the best talent of 
the conference was still detailed for the work there. 
Whitman C. Hill was sent there, and after him, in 1818, 
Henry Bass. He w^as an energetic and steady worker, 
and during his ministry there were some valuable acces- 
sions to the church. The next year Solomon Bryan 
is mentioned in the minutes, and having been sent dur- 
ing that year a parsonage was built, but it was not paid 
for. The membership had now" increased until there 
were foily-one whites and seventj-four blacks. They 
had a church-buildiiig and a new parsonage. The far- 
seeing Sam'l K. Hodges was presiding elder. He deter- 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



447 



mined to secure for Savannah, if he could do so, the 
most attractive preacher in the South Carolina Confer- 
ence, and at conference he called for Wm. Capers. 

W. M. Kennedy the presiding elder resisted the ap- 
pointment. It would be an affliction to a valuable and 
most deserving man, and then he needed him in Charles- 
ton. The Bishop refused to send Capers unless he was 
willing to go. AV^hen he was consulted he refused to 
choose, and as silence gave consent, in January, 1819, 
Wm. Capers was read out to Savannah, and to Savannah 
he went. He soon did there what he did everywhere — 
filled his house with delighted hearers. We have already 
mentioned the kindness of the Presbyterians to the 
struggling Methodists, and Dr. Kollock soon gave 
special evidence of his kind feeling by calling on the 
young preacher. This was the beginning of a personal 
affection which followed the gifted Kollock beyond the 
grave. The church was poor, but now the congregations 
w^ere large and the faithful young men who composed 
the official body of the church, and there were now 
quite an efficient band of them, rallied around a preach- 
er with whose talents and piety they w^ere justly dele- 
gated, and things began to wear a more sunny aspect. 
The church was in debt probably for the parsonage, but 
a tour of the pastor among his old friends in South Caro- 
lina soon relieved it of that burden. The next year 
Capers was returned ; during this year Dr. Henry M. 
Kollock died and Dr. Capers was called upon to preach 
his funeral sermon. By the time he had completed his 
pastorate the Savannah people had discovered that in 
the unsightly barn -like wooden building on the com- 
mons, there was oftentimes such preaching as the pul- 
pits of elegant cathedrals ask for in vain, and when 



448 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



John Howard came the next year, with his handsome 
person, elegant manners and fervid earnestness, he held 
the congregation Capers had gathered. He came in 
good time to reap what Capers had sown, and a year 
of wonderful prosperity marked his stay there. Daring 
that year there were over one hundred additions to the 
church, and they were of the first young men of the 
middle walks in life. Perhaps there was not a man of 
fortune among them ; but young merchants, and clerks, 
and mechanics, who were to make fortunes, were con- 
verted and joined the church. Among these was one 
who was to be a most valuable member of the church, 
until he ended a useful life in great peace. This was 
Benjamin Snider. Pie was a young man of Effingham 
County, who was now in small business in the city. His 
business grew and continued to grow, until he was a 
man of considerable wealth. His liberality was equal 
to his ability. He married a young lady from the North, 
and she was for many years one of the most efficient of 
those faithful women who labored in the Gospel in 
Savannah. When Bishop Pierce, in the third year of 
his ministry, was in Savannah, he married her sister. 

There were many others who in after-time did much for 
the church — who joined the churc^h when Howard was 
the pastor. After years of almost hopeless toil, then 
years of doubt and gloom, the church was now estab- 
lished. There was a large and comfortable building, a 
neat parsonage, and growing congregations. The con- 
ference was able to meet the demands of the pulpit with 
gifted preachers, and the next year James O. Andrew 
came to Savannah. Savannah was indeed blessed in her* 
preachers. Capers, Howard, and now Andrew, came one 
after the other. The Church continued to advance in 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



449 



every element of strength. Among those whom the 
pi-eachers mention with affection from the membership, 
there was Lydia Ancianx the mother-in-hxw of Senator 
Berrian. She was a lady of large m.eans and generous 
heart. Benjamin Snider, Thomas Pierce, John Renjs- 
hart, Francis Stone, and George Carpenter. Not far 
from Savannah was the settlement of those Lutherans to 
whose instructions, near a hundred years before. Mi*. 
Wesley had been so indebted. They were nov\^ to receive 
a return in blessing from the followers of Mr. AYesley ; 
for there was a gracious revival at Groshen, and a number 
of most valuable persons were added to the Church. 

While the membership of the city w^as not large, tb{3 
labor was heavy ; and George White, a young man, w^as 
sent with Bishop Andrew. Young White did not re- 
main in the Methodist Church for any length of time, 
but united with the Episcopalians. lie gave great 
attention in after life to the study of the history and 
resources of Georgia, and published the statistics of 
Georgia, and the historical collections to which we have 
so often referred in these pages. lie rose to eminence 
in the Church of his choice, and is now (1875) rector of 
a church in Memphis, Tenn. 

Bishop Andrew remained for two years, and in 1824 
Thomas L. Wynn was sent. He was useful and popular 
here as everywhere, but the church did not increase in 
membership during his stay. He was followed by George 
Hill, of whose useful labors we have had much to say. 
He was not so gifted a man as his predecessoi's, but 
w^as zealous and devotedly pious. Yet the church 
continued to decline, and reported only 126 wdiite mem- 
bers at the Conference of 1826. Charles Hardy followed 
him on the station, and there was still further decline. 



450 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



When Elijah Sinclair came to the work in 1828, he 
found only ninety-one members on the roll. There was 
now a smaller membership than for nearlv ten years 
preceding. 

In 1829, Bond English, who returned to South Caro- 
lina and did years of excellent work in that Conference, 
was in Savannah, but still there was but little increase 
in membersliip. Yet still the Church grew steadily, if 
slowly, and was foremost in every good work. The 
Church in Savannah has always been noted for its lib- 
eral giving ; and the Ladies' Working Society sent up 
their annual gifts to the Conference Treasury. 

In 1830, Benjamin Pope was sent to Savannah. We 
have already spoken of his lovely character, and under 
his ministry there was a net increase of thirty whites. 
The success among the blacks, then, had been very con- 
siderable ; and, at the conference 1883,198 had been 
received. In 1831 Dr. Few was the stationed preacher. 
He was then in the glory of his strength. Intellec- 
tualh', he was always strong ; physically, he was 
always feeble, but as far as his strength allowed he was 
always up to the measure of the demand, and great 
success attended his labors. At the next conference he 
]"eported an increase of over one hundred members, 
the membership then amounting to 302 whites, and 
296 colored. Savannah was now a strong church, not 
only in numbers but in spiritual power. It was the 
strongest station in the State. In 1832, Elijah Sinclair 
went to the city a second time and seemed to have had 
considerable success ; since he reports at the next con- 
ference 358 wdiite members. In 1833, George F. 
Pierce was appointed to the city. He was the youngest 
man who had ever been appointed to the station. He 



m GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 17S5-1865. 



451 



was not only to fill the pulpit which had been occupied 
by Capers, Howard, Andrew, Pope and Few, but he was 
to control the operations of the largest single church in 
the State. It was a heavy burden, even more weighty 
than the one of the year before ; for then he had the 
ever-ready counsels of his predecessor and former 
colleague. His presiding elder was Andrew Hanimill, 
wlio made his home in the city. The young preacher, 
feeling his responsibility, began his work and prosecuted 
it with earnestness; but for some time there was no 
evidence of success. One morning he rose in the pul- 
pit and preached with a full heart, and made an 
appeal to sinners ; and, as was frequently the custom in 
those days, he invited penitents to the altar. Not one 
came. He went home almost broken-hearted. He ate 
neither diimer, nor supper. He prepared no discourse 
for the nio;ht, and when the time came for liim to 
preach, he had no sermon ready ; but he went to the 
pulpit and preached as well as he could. After preach- 
ing, he concluded he would try once more. He did so, 
the chancel-rail was crowded with weeping penitents ; 
the revival thus connnenced and continued durino; the 
entire year. 

During his stay here the first conference collection 
reported from Savannah was taken. It amounted to 
$131— much the largest from any city in the State. 

In 1834 Wm. Capers, much to the delight of his old 
friends, returned to Savannah. Around the city there 
were several important missions, and he was not onl}'' 
stationed in the city but made superintendent of them. 
Fourteen years before, he had left Savannah. He had 
come to the station at that time with fear and trem- 
bling. He had been instrumental in doing the church 



452 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



such service as had laid tlie foundation for its present 
prosperity ; others had entered into the fruit of his 
labor, and ]iow he returned. Since he had first been 
sent tliere — a joung man not ten years in the I'eguhir 
ministry, whose fame was just beginning to spread — lie 
had won for himself a name in two continents ; and in 
the ripeness of his great powers, he was at the scene of 
his early triumphs. He returned to South Carolina 
after a year's service in Savannah, and Alexander Speer 
succeeded him. 

Savannah has, in common with other cities, varied in 
the increase of members ; and during these two years 
there was steady decline, and 200 white members were 
reported against 358 reported in 1S33. In 1836 James 
E. Evans, in the third vear of his pastorate, was sent to 
Savannah, and succeeding year was returned. At tlie 
end of his second year, much of the lost ground was re- 
covered, and Savannah reported 312 members. The 
collection reported at this conference was $81.00 ; which, 
while not equal to tliat taken when Bishop Pierce was 
on the station, was far ahead of the last, which was 
only $10.00. The term of tlie preacher in charge 
expiring, James Sewell succeeded him. 

It was his second appointment in Georgia. He was 
a rigid disciplinarian, and under his ministry the mem- 
bersliip again declined to the old figure of 257. He, 
however, returned the second year, arjd tliere was decided 
improvement — a net increase of sixty white members. 
In 1810, Dr. Few came ; and a young preacher, Miller H. 
White, who had been doing hard work on hard fields in 
lower Georgia and Florida, was sent with him to assist 
him. During the year there was still increase ; and J ames 
E. Evans, having returned to Geoi-gia, was again sent with 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1805. 



453 



Edward H. Myers to assist him on the Savannah Station. 
A very precious revival seems to have followed their 
efforts, and 440 white members were reported at the 
next conference. Evans was returned the next year, 
and James B. Jackson was sent with him to the chai'ge. 
Daniel Curry, the young Northerner of whom we have 
spoken, came the next year ; bnt, as elsewhere when he 
was in charge, the church decreased in membership 
during the year, and reported only 287 at the next 
conference. This was too much the case, in all the 
charges, in the days w^hen persons were received on pro- 
bation. Often large numbers united with the church 
during the pastorate of one ; but not meeting all its de- 
mands, tliey were dropped from the roll by the preacher 
who came after him. Josiah Lewis succeeded Daniel 
Curry on the station, but the ebbing tide still continues, 
and at the end of two years there is a loss to the station 
of nearly 100 white members. Caleb W. Key was sent 
the next year, and returns the next ; and the second 
year there was improvement in the chnrch roll, and 401 
are reported. In 1848, Alfred T. Maim and Charles A. 
FuUwood were in charge ; and there was increase, and 
450 were reported on the roll. The church built by 
James Russell and Lewis Myers, which had been en- 
larged in 1821 under Howard, and to some extent im- 
proved, was still too small, and was quite uncomely. The 
demands of the city were imperious for a new church ; 
but how many hallowed associations clung to the old 
church and the old spot npon which it stood ! That it 
was almost out of town ; that the building was sadly 
out of keeping with the wealth and influence of the 
congregation, was true ; but, yet, the surrender of the 
old and first church could not be made ^vithout 'a strug- 



454 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



gle ; and at last a new and second church in addition to 
the first was decided on, and Trinity church was planned 
while Dr. Evans was in charge, and completed under 
the pastorate of Dr. Mann, who followed him. It was a 
handsome building, large, comfortable, and though 
plain, yet elegant, fiince this time, the course of the 
church has been steadily onward. After the building 
of Trinity Church, Wesley remained a separate charge. 
In 1850, W. H. Branhain was at Trinity, and Robert A. 
Connor at Wesley. In 1851 Dr. Lovick Pierce and his 
son, Thomas F. Pierce, had charge of the two churches ; 
and in 1853 W. M. Ci'umley was sent to Trinity. Dur- 
ing this year there was a most memoi-able revival of 
religion in the city; one the most sweeping any city in 
Georgia has known. Manj^ of the leading laymen in 
Georgia, and some most efficient ministers, began their 
religious life during that season of refreshing. The 
next year Mr. Crumley was returned, and with him, as 
assistant, the saintly young Payne. 

Joshua G. Payne was the oldest son of James B. 
Payne, and had early become a professed Christian ; and 
as soon as he left college had entered into the travelling 
ministry. This was his second appointment, and his 
last. During the summer of this year, Savannah was 
visited by the most fearful epidemic in her history. 
The yellow-fever raged with a virulence never known 
there before. All the citizens who could get away, fled 
to the up-country ; but the preachers stood nobly at their 
posts. The two Methodist preachers were ceaseless in 
their labors. One of them still lives, and we are thus 
precluded from speaking of his heroism in language 
such as it merits ; but young Payne early fell. He had 
toiled bravely, calmly, quietly, and when he sank under 



IlSr GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



455 



the insidious poisoi], lie calmly leaned his head on the 
breast of Jesus and fell in sleep. Dr. Saussy, a leading 
member of the church, while bravely attending to all 
the calls of humanity around him, sickened and died ; 
and his daughter, who afterwards married the Eev. 
Tliomas H. Jordan, of the conference, took his place, 
and visited the patients for whom the over-taxed phy- 
sicians would prescribe. In the midst of the epidemic 
a terrible storm came and unroofed the church. Long, 
weary months the fever ruled with imperious sway, but 
when the white-frost came the plague ceased, and the 
scattered citizens returned to their homes. They found 
their pastor broken in health from the ravages of fever 
and from care ; their young pastor in his grave ; many 
of their official members dead ; their church injured; 
the handsome city desolated ; but with brave hearts 
they went to work. The people in the up-country as- 
sisted them, and soon all that could be done to repair 
these ills was done. 

In 1855 and 1856, Joseph S. Key was at Trinity, 
Thomas II. Jordan at Wesley, and James M. Dickey 
at Andrew Chapel. Beyond this period it is not 
now necessary to go. The Savannah Church has con- 
tinued to advance in usefulness and power to the present 
time. 

The old church, in the changes of population, became 
so remote from its members, that it was decided to sell 
it and purchase another lot in the newer part of the 
city. A church built by the Lutherans, and sold by 
them, was purchased. This served the congregation for 
a few years, but now the effoi-t is being made to erect 
an elegant church, to be known as the Wesley Monu- 
mental Chm-ch, upon the lot, to stand as a permanent 



450 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



monument to him in that city in which his life as a i 
Methodist began. All branches of Methodism have ' 
contributed to the erection of the building, and it will 
doubtless be completed. 

Much attention from the beginning had been given j 
to the colored people of Savannah by the Methodists, J 
and a considerable measure of success had followed I 
their labors. After the white and colored people had 
remained together in the same church, it was thought 
proper to form them into a separate charge and supply 
them w^ith a separate minister. This was done, and 
Andrew Chapel, a neat building, was erected for them, 
and for some years they were regularly furnished by 
the Missionary Society with a preacher. 

There were many very valuable and intelligent men 
among them who seemed much attached to the church 
which had cared for them. 

When, however, Savannah fell into the hands of the 
Federal troops in the latter part of 1814, the building 
was turned over to the African Methodists, and the lar- 
ger part of the membership went with it. Some few 
faithful ones remained. Among these was David Deas, 
the steward of Solomon Cohen, Esq. He was a colored 
layman of remarkable piety and intelligence. He wrote 
a very creditable letter, attended to all business intelli- 
gently, and was a most reliable man. He refused to 
leave the church of his early love, and the handful tliat 
remained with him had the church building returned 
to them by the courts. The General Conference of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church South transferred this 
church among others to the Colored Methodist Episco- 
pal Church in America. 

The Savaimah church has always been noted for the 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



457 



simplicity of its Cliristian character. In no place in 
Georgia has the piety of the membership been of a 
higher order. Struggling against such odds in its early 
days, it became cemented into one body, and unity in 
council has always marked it. 

The sketch of the Savannah Church would not be 
complete without a brief notice of its frieiids and mem- 
bers. 

Among the first and foremost friends of the Savannah 
Church were leading members of the Independent Pres- 
byterian Church. At one time the larger part of the 
wealth and influence of the city was in that church, and 
when Dr. KoUock was pastor he evinced towards the 
Methodists an affection which has made his memory 
dear to them ever since. 

Mr. Milieu, a Presbyterian, gave to Samuel Dunwoody 
and the other preachers a home, when they were preach- 
ing to a congregation of which only three whites were 
members of the Society ; and Lewis Myers mentions 
that Dr. Harrall and Mr. E. Stark of the same commun- 
ion were active in the work of enlarging the church. 

A full sketch of the noble men and women who stood 
by the Methodist Society, as it was called by friend and 
foe, would add gi-eatly to the value of this account ; 
and we are able to some extent to supply this, through 
the kindness of Rev. James E. Godfrey, who long lived 
in Savannali, and was intimately associated with the 
Methodist people there, and who was himself one of 
the most efficient of the local preachers of the Church 
after his location. 

We give his sketch in toto : 

You ask for sketches of prominent members of tlie 
church, male and female. 
20 



458 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



Francis Mathew Stone was the most prominent and 
useful member of the church ; did more for it than any 
or all others put togetlier. I am sorry the church has 
kept no record of liis life and labors. I will give you 
what I learned from himself and what I knew after- 
wards, from an intimate acquaintance from 1835 to 
1863, when he died. 

Brother Stone was a poor young man in the city, but 
from his sober habits won the confidence of the people ; 
he made no pretentions to morality even, and his early 
life was marked by many departures from moral recti- 
tude. He was made marshal of the city, which office 
he held for forty years, and now I give you his experi- 
ence as he related it to me: He said he was required 
to keep order in the city, and as the Methodist Church 
was frequently disturbed by rowdies, he made his busi- 
ness to ride to the Church and sit on his horse to keep 
a lookout for those who w^ere in the habit of disturbing 
the worship. Henry Bass w^as the minister, and while 
tliere in the discharge of his duty, he heard the w^ord 
as preached ; he never went to church, but, under the 
ministry of the word, he was deeply convicted for sin, 
and resolved to lead a new life. He said nothing about 
it to any one, but strove by prayer and reading tlie 
Word to obtain pardon ; for months the struggle con- 
tinued. He lieard there was to be a camp-meeting at 
Taylor's Creek, in Liberty County, recently establislied 
l)y Allen Turner, and he resolved to attend ; he re- 
mained during the meeting, receiving no relief, and on 
Monday morning started home almost in despair. Rid- 
ing alone he said this thought was suggested to his 
niindi "Have you ever consecrated yourself wholly to 
G-od ? " He stopped his horse and took off his hat, and 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1 8C5. 



459 



looking lip to Heaven, replied andiblv, " I have not." 
The next suggestion, which he afterwards had, no doubt, 
was from the Holy Spirit, " Are yon willing to con- 
secrate yourself, body, soul, spirit, fortune, time, talent, 
everything, to him ? He said he dismounted, knelt on 
the side of the road and said : "Lord, I am willing, and 
if you will pardon my sins, I will be thine for time and 
eternity." In a moment he felt a heavenly calm spread 
all over his soul, and a peace unalterable and full of 
glory. And he said, " My brother, from that hour to 
this, I have never lost the witness of the Spirit." On 
his arrival in the city he called on Brother Bass, and 
desired to join the church. The next Sabbath evening, 
at the conclusion of the services he and wife were 
received into the church. 

From that day to his death he was one of the most 
consistent Christians I ever knew, and so marked was 
the change, that Mr. George W. Anderson has said to 
me, that Stone's life did more for the cause of religion 
in the community than anything else. From being a 
determined man, ready always to resent an insult with 
blows — for he did not know, as he has said to me, w^hat 
the feeling of fear w^as — he ^vas now of a meek and 
quiet spirit, and I have heard men curse and abuse him, 
and he never replied, but afterwards, have known him 
to go to these same men, and talk to and pray for them 
until they were completely ashamed of themselves. He 
was a man of unyielding will and purpose, and to know 
a thing was right, was to do it without counting the 
cost. He had the confidence and esteem of everybody, 
in and out of the church. When he joined the church 
the principal members were Father Wright, grand- 
father of Rev. Alexander Wright, of the South Georgia 



460 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



Conference, J^atliaiiiel Lewis, Mr. Ballow, the mother 
of Sister Stewart, still living, and ripe for Heaven, and 
soon after, Mrs. Anciaux, mother-in-law of Judge J. 
M. Berrien, then a yonng lawyer, and soon after ris- 
ing to distinction. This lady and Mr. Stone soon be- 
came strong friends, and continued so during her life. 
He was her agent, and trustee of a legacy of a fund 
given to the General Conference. 

Bro. Stone soon accumulated wealth, and no man 
gave more liberally to the church and poor than he. 
Indeed, as Bro. Evans remarked the other day, Frank 
Stone was the backbone of the Methodists in Savannah, 
ever since I have known them to a few years before the 
war. The infirmities of age and disease came upon 
him, and he turned over to a great degree his charge to 
his younger brethren. But his counsel was always 
sought and heeded. He was a rare man, loved the 
Church, and lived for God. He died, I think, in 1863, 
full of hope of a brighter and better world. 

Under the ministry of Dr. Capers, two young English- 
men, William and James Quantock, were converted and 
joined the church. They were remarkable for their 
^ piety, and all bore testimony that they illustrated the 
gospel by a well-ordered walk and godly conversation. 
Several years after their conversion, they were licensed 
as local preachers, in which capacity they lived and 
died, good and useful men. 

The first local preacher I have any knowledge of was 
Saml. J. Bryant ; he I think, moved to Savannah from 
Scriven County, a man of more than ordinary intellect 
and culture, a strong preacher, and useful man. He 
unfortunately commenced merchandizing, failed in busi- 
ness, making many enemies, causing uncharitable re- 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



461 



marks, and destroying his usefulness. He was the first 
missionary (voluntarily), under the patronage of Elijah 
Sinclair, to the negroes on Savannah Back River, the 
first man who compiled a catechism for colored children, 
and Hymn Book. He removed to Oxford, was made 
agent for the college, afterwards removed to Apalachi- 
cola, Fla., where he died. 

Bro. John Remshart was converted during the revi- 
val nnder John Howard, and licensed some time after 
as a local preacher. He was the first missionary to the 
colored people, on the Ogeechee River, a faithful, good 
man, doing much good amongst those people. He was a 
useful man in the church, and no one labored harder to 
pi'omote her interests than he and his pious wife. They 
still live in the county, well stricken in years, ripe for 
the kingdom. 

Bro. John B. Da vies, the father of Louis and Barrtow 
Davies, of our conference, was also converted at the 
great revival under Howard, and licensed as a local 
preacher. He was a finely educated man, a son of 
Judge Davies of the Superior Court, a graduate of 
Franklin University, a man of superior mind and ex 
quisite taste, a very superior preacher, and led a blame- 
less, holy life. But he was so timid, having so little 
confidence in his ability to preach, that he failed to 
accomplish as much as he miglit. The people always 
heard him gladly, and were always instructed under 
his ministry. He w^as a noble man, a saint of God, 
and has long since gone to his reward on high. These 
were all the local preachers, until I located in 1841. 

Referring again to laymen under the ministry of Bro, 
Pope, Bro. William Moore was converted, and joined 
the church. He was a finely educated Christian gen- 



462 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



tleraan, a zealous, laborious Methodist, raised an Epis- 
copaliaii, of one of the old aristocratic families of the 
city; he met with much opposition to his being a Metho- 
dist, but he disregarded all of it, and held on the even 
tenor of his way, doing much for the church by his 
means, his wise councils, and zealous labors, as trustee, 
steward and class-leader. He was faithful in all, lived 
a godly life, and a few years since was called to his 
reward on high. A good man always in the spirit, and 
full of faith, he died in great peace. 

Of the ladies, I might say much, but this history has 
already grown too long. Sister Da vies, the wife of Rev. 
J. B. Davies, and mother of our beloved brethren, L. J. 
and Bartow Davies, I think w^as the holiest woman I 
have ever known. I always entered her presence with a 
reverence and respect inspired by no other person I 
have ever seen. She professed and lived the blessing of 
sanctification as taught by Wesley. No wonder out of 
four sons three are valuable and nseful ministers, and 
of several daughters, some have died in the faith and 
the survivors are in the Church and on their w^ay to 
Heaven. Doubtless there will be an unbroken family, 
in that day when God shall summon his chosen ones to 
his eternal kingdom. 

Mrs. Benj. Sinclair, Sarah Mills, old Sister Rise, a 
cotemporary with Stone, Sisters Quantocks, Sister Stew- 
art, and a host of others, some dead and others still liv- 
ing ready for the summons ; Sisters Haupt, Saussy, 
Reinshart — what a host comes up to memory of forty 
years' acquaintance? We will meet again. 

I forgot to speak of Dr. Saussy. He was a good man 
and useful. I parted with him the night he sickened, 
near the Catholic Church about 12 o'clock at night, 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



463 



having left Crumley's sick-room to get some sleep, for 
Ave had been up for several nights. He took a chill on 
his way home, and in three days was dead. He lived 
right and died triumphantly. May his children follow 
him as he followed Christ. His w^ife still survives, but 
waiting patiently and hopefully the calling of the Master. 

I believe I have said all that is necessary. Tou can 
use it as you think best. David Deas the colored man 
referred to was only a private member of the Church. 
William Bently was a preacher of great power and elo- 
quence ; sometimes he was equal to any man I have ever 
heard in the pulpit, and gifted in prayer. He was 
known all over the State as a good man and able 
preacher. He, like Deas, refused to go to the Af i-ican 
Church, and, instigated as it w^as supposed by some 
of the colored people, the Federal soldiers horribly 
hung and beat him, until he sunk under it, and soon 
after died, in bright anticipation of eternal life. He 
was a good man and true to tlie Church of his choice. 

Yours truly, 

Jas. E. Godfrey. 

Athens, now a flourishing young city on the upper 
waters of the Oconee, was first located as the place 
chosen for the new State institution which was to be 
called Franklin College. It was laid out in 1803. Hope 
Hull had been one of the most ardent friends of the 
college, and had removed to the neighborhood of Athens 
to secure the advantages which it afforded for the edu- 
cation of his sons. He was living a short distance from 
the village, and had built a church known as Hull's 
meeting-house, near his own home. This was a week- 
day appointment in the Apalachee Circuit. The preach- 



464 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



ing ill Athens was all done in the college chapel, and he 
had a Sunday appointment there. The society was at 
Hull's meeting-house, so that Hope Hull was the only 
Methodist preacher wlio had a regular appointment in 
Athens. There was no attempt to organize a society in 
it, and those who were Methodists held their member- 
ship at Hull's meeting-house. After tlie death of the 
old veteran in 1817, the appointment at the meeting- 
house was given up. The people of Athens were sup- 
plied with preaching by tlie professors in tlie college, 
and the one place of worship was the college-chapel. 
In 1825 the few Methodists of the village resolved to 
have a church and had erected a plain wooden struc- 
ture. This was the "first house of worship of any name 
built in Athens. Athens was now a sprightly village 
noted for the culture and refinement of its people. It 
was remote from the seaboard, and the back-country 
upon which it relied for its trade was thinly settled and 
not fertile. The Indian frontier was only fifteen miles 
away, and so it did not grow i-apidly but still was mod- 
erately prosperous. 

The liev. Thomas Stanley, of whom we have spoken, 
who was a preacher of ability, was rector of tlie Female 
Academy, and when the church was finished was ])laced 
in charge of it. The two sons of Hope Hull, Asbury 
and Henry, had their homes in the village, the one a 
physician, the other a lawyer. Gen. David Merri- 
wether, one of the first Methodists in Georgia, with his 
family, resided there. These were the strong frier) ds 
and supporters of the struggling church. The confer- 
ence at its next session united Athens with Greensboro^ 
so as to provide for the citizens of the town service by 
a pastor two Sabbaths in the month, and sent Lovick 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1S65. 465 

Pierce in charge, the other two Sabbaths being supplied 
bv the local preachers. Tlie resuhs of this increased 
attention to the religions interests of the people was seen 
in a gracions revivah The citizens and the stndents of the 
college alike participated in the blessings of it. Thomas 
Samford was now presiding elder, and he was a man 
of mighty eloquence and of untiring zeal. Thomas 
Stanley was an old preacher of great ability. And now 
came Stephen Olin, who had been elected professor in 
the college, and who identified himself at once with the 
church. Olin has had few peers, and we think no 
superior, in the American pulpit, and though his health 
was frail and he could not preach often, yet wlien he 
did preach, it was with wonderful power. The remem- 
brance of his sermons is still a rare treasure to the few 
who remain who heard him. Having passed himself 
through a fearful conflict with skepticism, and having 
come forth a victor, he was especially able and earnest 
in combatting it. He preached one afternoon on the 
Evidence of Pj'ophecy, and held his audience entranced 
for two hours and a half. At another time he sunnned 
up with great fairness and mighty power all the objec- 
tions of the infidel, and then after he had made the 
timid tremble, answered his own objections witli over- 
Avhelming eloquence. Lovick Pierce was then in his 
prime, and was the delight of eveiw congregation, and 
Thomas Samford was a great man. Under the joint 
ministrations of Samfoi'd, Stanley, Pierce, and Olin, a 
gracious revival began which swept on with great power. 
The revival began in tlie college among the students, and 
resulted from a prayer-meeting instituted by one of them, 
a young Baptist preacher. About the time when the 
relicrious interest vras bemnniuo' to manifest itself, the 

O _ CD J 

20* 



466 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



Eev. Joseph C. Stiles, of the Presbyterian Cluirch, then 
ill the vigor of his youth and the zenith of his fame, 
came to Athens. He was remarkable as an evangelist, 
and he did much to increase the religious feeling. A 
meeting now began in the Methodist Church, and a 
mighty tide of revival influence swept over the worship- 
pers. Manv were converted. Among the students 
converted at this meeting was Geo. Foster Pierce, the 
oldest son of Dr. Lovick Pierce. 

He was a boy of sixteen years old. He had been an 
earnest penitent for some weeks. One night his mother 
was present, having come to Athens with her husband. 
George was among the penitent again ; his father went 
to him and simply said : " My boy, you must trust your 
Saviour." He looked calmly up, and said : "And I do, 
pa." With a joyous heart the Doctor took him by the 
liand and led him to his mother. That over-joyed, 
saintly woman rejoiced aloud, and the multitude joined 
ill her joy. The good work went on with power. Dr. 
Pierce remained two years, and then James O. Andrew 
was sent to the same charge. It was all the more plea- 
sant to him since it gave him an opportunity to see his 
Ycnerable father, who was still living. A\ith the Hulls 
and Meriwetliers the Bishop was also connected by fam- 
ily ties, and the sons of Hope Hull, his spiritual father, 
were now prominent and useful members of the Society. 
Madison, the next year, was joined with Athens, and 
Andrew was again sent to the appointment. Alas that 
these days should be so barren of incident — have little 
to tell, save what is told by the minute figures ! The 
Church grew, but was evidently not strong, since 1S7 
was the total membership in the two villages. 

The next year Wm. J. Parks was sent upon the Athens 



IN GEORGIA AJSD FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



467 



District, and Lovick Pierce was sent to Athens and 
Madison. Uncle Billy Parks was a great favorite at 
Athens during all his life. His home was only thirty 
miles from the village, and many of its people had 
known him from his boyhood. No two men could have 
contrasted more strikingly than the presiding elder and 
the preaciher in charge. Wm. J. Parks was plainness 
incarnated. His dress was plain, his manners plain, his 
speech was plain. Polish he neither valued nor sought. 
A block of granite cannot take the polish of a slab of 
marble, and Parks was granite all over. Lovick Pierce, 
on the other hand, was a man of finest polish. He was 
almost fastidious in dress, scrupulously polite, and ele- 
gant in manner, and a man of wide and careful reading. 
Yet the pithy sentences, the homely illustrations, the 
genuine force of the young elder made him a favorite 
like to the gifted pastor. They could not come into 
competition for they were moving on different lines, not 
crossing each other, but converging at the focal point of 
doing good to all men. The hardy backwoodsman, whose 
life had been one of toil, though near twenty years the 
junior of his frail colleague who had preceded him so 
long in the work, passed to his reward before him. Dur- 
ing the year there was increase ; but because we can- 
not separate the villages, we are unable to tell w^here 
that increase was. The next year Dr. Pierce returned, 
and the next came Eenjamin Pope. He was on his 
native heath, but this prophet had honor among his own 
friends and kindred. We have already spoken so freely 
and fully of him that we need not here reproduce what 
we have said. It is probable that Pope lived in Athens. 
H so, he was the first resident pastor there. The next 
year Lovick Pierce came again. There was much about 



468 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



Atlieiis attractive to liiin, and he was attractive to every 
place. Athens had been in his circuit the second year 
of liis ministry. It had been in his district when he 
was a young presiding elder. He had been in charge 
of it the first year it was set off as a station in connection 
with another village, and now he is the first preacher 
w^ho has charge of it alone. He reported at the next 
conference 107 white and seventy colored members. At 
this conference we have the first report from the collec- 
tions, and Athens and Madison send np $9.41, which 
was the first public collection reported from the two 
towns. Four years after Athens alone sent up $119.00 
to the same collection. Wm. Ai'nold was presiding elder 
the year following, with W. R. K. Mosely as pi-eacher 
in charge, and the one succeeding. 

Wm. Arnold was still presiding elder, and Jeremiah 
In orman succeeded as pastor, Norman we have spoken 
of. His beauty had not increased^ though his intellect 
had improved, by the time he came to Athens. We 
have already alluded to him as a most excellent 
preacher ; his looks, however, did not indicate it. A 
crowd once came out in Eatonton to hear John Howard 
preach. Jere. Norman had unexpectedly reached the 
village, and made himself known to the preacher, who 
never having heard him in the pulpit, was rather shy of 
inviting him to preach, but courtesy required it, and he 
did so with some hesitancy. The preacher used the 
same text Howard had intended to use, and his sermon 
was so far beyond what Howard thought he could have 
preached, that he never failed to speak of his agreeable 
astonishment. He was returned the second year, not so 
common, a thins: then as now. 

W. J. Parks returned to the Athens District after 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



469 



two years of hard work in Southern Georgia. The 
next year Whiteford Smith, a joimg South Carolinian 
in the fifth year of his ministry, was sent to Athens. 
He came from Augusta, where he had spent two useful 
and successful years. He was very popular as a 
preacher, and the spiritual interests of the church began 
to revive. Among the most prominent citizens of 
Athens was Judge Augustine S. Clayton. He had been 
a member of Congress, a Judge of the Superior Court^ 
and a most decided skeptic. His wife was an earnest 
Christian, a member of the Methodist Church. While 
the revival which had begun w^as going on, he was 
struck with paralysis. He was visited at once by the 
young pastor. Through the kindness of Dr. Smith, 
now Professor of Wofford College, we are able to give 
in his own words an account of this interview : 
"When first approached on the subject, he said he w^as 
entirely satisfied with his condition, that he had always 
tried to be an honest man and do all kindness to his 
fellow men — as he recovered, however, his mind under- 
went a great change. He felt himself to be a sinner, 
unworthy of any blessing, and threw himself without 
reserve on the merits of Christ. As soon as he was 
able to go out of the house to church, he expressed a 
desire to join the church in the most public manner, 
that he might, if possible, counteract any evil which 
his former opinions had wrought. On the Sunday 
when he made this public profession, the church was 
crowded to the very doors. I think Dr. Means preached 
for me. At the close of the sermon an invitation w^as 
given to those who w^ished to unite with the Church 
The Judge arose and came forward, and was soon fol- 
lowed by one of his daughters, and many others. 



470 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



Among those who presented themselves was Alban 
Chase, between whom and the Judge there had long 
existed a strong political hostility. As soon as Jndge 
Clayton saw him approach the pulpit from the other 
side of the house, he beckoned to him to come to him, 
and extending his hand, he grasped him Avarinly. The 
effect was overpowering. The whole congregation was 
bathed in teai's. The Spirit of God seemed to rest 
upon tlie assembly, and a ]iew impulse was given to the 
gracious work. The subsequent lives of these two 
excellent men gave satisfactory proof of the genuine- 
ness of the work wrought in their hearts." 

The revival went on, and over sixty members w^ere 
added to the church. At the conference, he was re- 
turned a second time. 

The next year James E. Evans, who had been in 
Charleston, returned to Georgia, and Whiteford Smith 
returned to Charleston. 

James E. Evans was always successful in winning 
souls, and his labors were blessed with a great revival 
in Athens, and during the year of his pastorate, the 
minutes report an increase of over one hundred per- 
sons. ■-• ' • - -'v- ^^-^ .:■ • 

In 184:1, Daniel Curry, and in 1842, W. E. Bran^ 
ham and Daniel Curry were sent to Atliens, which was 
nnited with Lexington. Alfred T. Mann came in 1843, 
and W. J. Parks came in 1844-45. The Church moved 
smoothly on during this period ; there was no great re- 
vival, but Athens was on the eve of the most wonderful 
revival she had ever known, one of which we w^ish we 
could do more than tell the bare story which the figures 
give us. G. J. Pearce was in charge. He was a stir- 
ring evangelist, and great success had attended him 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



471 



elsewhere. He was this year to be a great blesshig to 
the people of Atliens. Dr. Hull, who has kept a care- 
ful record of the Chiircli in Atliens for nearly forty years, 
reports that 163 white members and 97 colored joined 
the church during this year, and this when Athens was 
a small country town. The revival influence was felt 
by all in the city, and all who came to it. The church 
was now a strong one, and the colored charge itself de- 
manded a pastor ; so the next year John M. Bonnell was 
sent w^itli G. J. Pearce. Jno. M. Bonnell was a Penn- 
sylvanian by birth. He came to Geoi'gia, when a skep- 
tical bo}^, to teach school, w^as thrown among the Metho- 
dists in Greenville, Merriwether County, was converted, 
and entered upon his ministerial wwk. His almost 
matchless capacity as an educator, and his wide and ac- 
curate scholarship called him from the pastorate into 
the school room, and he was either a professor or presi- 
dent the larger part of his life. Had his health per- 
mitted, he would liave chosen the pastoral office, but it 
did not, and he accepted the call of Providence as an 
instructor. 

Dr. Jesse Boring followed him, but left the station 
as a missionary to California. In 1849-50, Dr. Eustace 
W. Speer took charge of the congregation. The old 
church did not meet the demands of the young city. 
It had been built when Athens was a village in the 
woods ; now it was a thriving commercial and manu- 
facturing town, and a handsome and commodious brick 
church was now erected. We need now" do little more 
than give a list of the preachers who supplied the sta- 
tion : - , 

1851-2. Alfred T. Mann. , 

1853-4. Joseph S. Key. > ^ 



472 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



1855. Alexander M. Wjnii. 
1856-7. II. H. Parks. 

During 1857 the daily prajer-meeting became an 
institution in many of our cities, and Gen. Thomas 
R. R. Cobb, who fell at the battle of Fredericksburg, 
and who added to great abilities as a lawyer and a 
statesman the beauty of pure Christian character, 
united with others of like devotion to Christ, and a 
nnion praj^er- meeting began, which resulted in a gra- 
cious and long-continued revival, which swept through 
the year, and in 1858 there were many accessions to the 
church. 

A second church, in proximity to the manufacturing 
establishment, on the river, was thought to be a neces- 
sity, and it was built. ^ • 

Athens has ahvays been a pleasant home for tlie 
preacher, and its appreciation of those who have served 
it is shown in the number of times the same preachers 
have occupied its pastorate. Dr. Lovick Pierce was 
stationed there three times ; Alfred T. Mann, two ; 
Joseph S. Key, three; II. II. Parks has spent six years 
in the charge. 

No church in Georgia has had a body of laymen more 
worthy than the church at Athens. It has always been 
among the first in benevolent enterprises, and its reli- 
gious character has always been bigli. Of these laymen 
w^e can do but little more than make mention. Of Da- 
vid Merriwether w^e have spoken, and of Flope Hull. 
Asbury Hull, the son of Hope Hull, was one of the 
early men:ibers of the church. He was a lawyer of great 
abilit3^ He was a statesman of the purest character. 
Honored by all of every party, his death was justly re- 
garded as a calamity. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 473 

Alboli Chase was for many years one of the leading 
business men of Athens. A JSToi-thern man by birth, he 
spent most of his years in the South. He led in all pub- 
lic enterprises, and was liberal in his views and liberal 
in his benefactions. He gave his only child to a Meth- 
odist preacher as a wife, and after a life of great prob- 
ity he passed to his reward. 

Dr. Henry Hull, the last remaining son of Hope 
Hull, still lives. He has been for over fifty years an 
official member of the church in Athens, and is as devo- 
ted to the church to-day as he was in the days of his 
early life. 

Athens has always been noted for her saintly women. 
Mrs. Flournoy, the sister of Col. Cobb and the aunt of 
Howell and Thomas 11. R. Cobb, and of Judge Jackson, 
was a woman of whose saintliness of character we have 
spoken. She lived in such holy communion with God, 
thatj in the midst of most fearful afiiiction, her shouts 
of praise revealed the joy within. But our space for- 
bids a fuller story of Athens and her good people. 

When the Creek lands were purchased in 1822, it was 
decided to locate a city at the head of navigation on the 
Ocmulgee Eiver, opposite old Fort Hawkins, on the 
eastern side. This city w^as laid out in 1825, and was 
called Macon. It soon became a place of considerable 
trade, and cotton from all the new counties and many 
of the old sought a market there. It was nominally in 
the boundary of the Forsyth Circuit, and there was 
preaching occasionally in the town academy. 

Thomas Darley was appointed to Macon and Clinton; 
but if he went, he makes no report of his labors to the 
conference. The next year Samuel K. Hodges^ with 
Charles Hardy, was sent in charge. During that year 



474 HISTORY OF METHODISM 

Hedges secured the assistance of John Howard and 
Lovick Pierce, and a four days' meeting was held in 
a warehouse where is now^ located Clirist Church 
(Episcopal). The meeting went on for four days at 
least, and was productive of much good, for during the 
year a churcli was built on a beautiful lot on MulbeiT}^ 
Street. Tiie next year Ignatius A. Few, in the second 
year of his travelling ministry, was sent in charge of the 
station. Dr. Few gave dignity to every place he filled, 
and he soon gathered about him a large and appreciative 
congregation. Many substantial Methodists from the 
older parts of the State had ah^eady moved to the city, 
and he found lay members ready to help him in organ- 
izing the church for work. Among these were Wm. 
Fort, Everard Hamilton, and Thomas Hardeman. 
During this year a Sunday-school was organized. The 
members in the church were 120. Dr. Few was re- 
turned the second year. The first Georgia Conference 
was held in Macon in 1831. John Howard had now 
moved to the city and was placed on the Milledgeville 
District, and Benj. Pope was the stationed preacher. 
Althouo;h the district claimed much of Howard's time, 
yet he gave as much as he could to the city, which was 
his home, and during the year there was a precious re- 
vival, and 100 additional members were added to the 
cliui'ch. Among them were man}- of the solid men of 
Macon. Pope, who had done a good year's work, was 
returned, and John Howard was retained on the dis- 
trict. The next year Archelaus H Mitchell, now Dr. 
Mitchell of Alabama, was in charge of the station, and 
in 1834 John Howard was made agent of the Manual 
Labor School, and Wm. J. Parks was placed on the dis- 
trict, and Dr. Few and Thomas P. Lawrence were 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



475 



sent on the station. Lawrence was a young man of 
good parts, but somewhat erratic, and after remainuig 
in the conference for a few years, w^ithdrew\ 

Jno. W. Talley came m 1835. He appointed a meet- 
ing and secured the assistance of some of his brethren, 
Jno. Howard and Elijah Sinclair among them. They 
were both living in Macon, and were very popular men 
and men of great pulpit power. The pastor was young, 
earnest, and devoted. The good work at once began, 
and one hundred were added to the church. Amono^ 
them was Geo. Jewett, the father of Chas. R. Jewett, 
w4iom we have mentioned elsewhere. IS^umbers of the 
leading men of the young and busy city were converted. 
After this meeting Elijah Sinclair proposed the building 
of a female college, and during this year it was begun. 
A, Speer followed Talley for two years. The member- 
ship of the church was now 303. They were scattered 
over a large area, and the work was so heavy that two 
preachers were sent to the charge, Willis D. Mathews 
and W. W. Robinson. The church had now increased in 
ten years from 120 to 303, and in few charges was there 
more wealth and influence. These were flush times in 
Macon. Cotton came pouring into it from all new 
country, to be shipped down the Ocmulgee. Banks 
w^ere established ; a new railroad from Savannah was 
being pushed towards Macon, while Macon herself was 
striving, with the help of the interior, to build one to the 
West. The new female college was being built ; all 
thino's seemed prosperous, but the church was not ; and 
not growth, but decline was the order in it. Elijah Sin- 
clair, busy with his college interests, was placed in charge 
of the station at the Conference of 1838, and there w^as 
still further decline reported. 



476 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



At the succeeding conference Wm. Arnold was 
placed on the district, and Jno. P. Duncan was sent to 
the station. Geo. F. Pierce left his district to take 
charge of the female college just now opened, so that 
Macon had the services of Wm. Arnold, who carried 
blessings wherever he went, Jno. P. Duncan, who was 
remarkable for his power of moving men, and Geo. F. 
Pierce. They united their forces, and the result was 
one of the most wonderful revivals Macon had ever 
known. On one Sunday in May, ninety persons pre- 
sented themselves, and there were 371 white members 
reported at the next conference. 

During this year Bisho]) Pierce gave from the pulpit 
some most withering rebukes to public vices. Indeed, 
so frequent and so telling were his castigations, that 
they became famous. One day he received a letter 
from an anonymous correspondent in Putnam County, 
detailing a scandalous cotton transaction, of which there 
were not a few in those days. He prepared a sermon 
on Balaam, the son of Besor, who loved the wages of 
unrighteousness." He gave an exposition of the text, 
and then p-ave as an illustration of lovino; the wao;es of 
unrighteousness the tricks of trade, and detailed the 
very transaction of which he had received knowledge, 
as a possible way of securing the wages. It was sonie- 
w^iat ludicrous to mark the flutter the preacher ex- 
cited, and for him to hear from each cotton-buyer, 
the next week, emphatic declarations that it was some 
one else, not him. During this revival, many boys and 
young men were converted. One of these was Robert 
A. Smith. We have spoken of the remarkable conver- 
sion of the wife of Major Smith, in Clinton, years 
before. Robert was her son. He w^as highly gifted, 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



477 



and born to wealth and position. He became a 
Christian. He passed througli all the trying scenes o£ 
school and college life and preserved his Christian 
character, and when he entered his law office he 
entered it a Christian lawyer. He was an official mem- 
ber of the Church — steward, trustee, class leader, Bible- 
class teacher. Few men have worked so much or so 
well. The prisoner in his cell, the outcast, the friend- 
less child, the pauper — all had in him a friend. He 
married young and happily, but he was smitten by the 
saddest blow that can fall on a young heart, in the 
death of his young wife. He remained a single man 
till his death. When the war came on he entered the 
army, first as a captain and then as a colonel. Against 
the entreaty of his surgeon and of his friends, he went 
into the battle of Seven Pines, was wounded, and died. 
Lewis Lawslie, a thoughtless young tailor, was converted 
at the same meeting. He afterwards became a local 
preacher, was a long time superintendent of the Wesley 
Chapel Sunday-school in Atlanta, and after years of 
great usefulness there, died in peace. 

Many other young men who still live w^ere converted 
at that time. At the Conference of 1841, Alfred 
T. Mann was sent in charge, and in lSl-2 Bishop Pierce, 
who had resigned his place in the college, was sent again 
to the station. During the year there was an increase 
of over fifty members, and he reported nearly 400 
members in the charge. Samuel Anthonj^ was placed in 
charge of the station in 1843, and there was reported 
an increase of over 100 members; 497 whites and i 
392 colored members were reported at the Conference/ 
of 1844. Macon had now the largest membership off 
any city in the State. Augusta had 303 member3,\ 



478 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



Savannah 387, Columbus 375, JVIacon 447. At the 
Conference of 1844 James B. Payne was sent in charge 
of the station, and J no. W, Talley was the presiding 
elder. Tlie old story of the loss of members after a 
great revival was repeated, and Macon reported only 
426 at the next conference. Isaac Boring was placed 
on the district, and Samuel Anthony was returned to 
the station. 

In 1847 W. M. Crumley was sent to Macon, and Vine- 
ville, a suburban village, which had built a neat church, 
was made a separate station, and Wm. I. Sapwith was 
sent in charge of it. Of the Macon membership, 189 
were in Vineville and its vicinity, and 317 in Macon, 
making a total of 506. G. J. Pearce came in 1848, and 
AV.R. Branham in 1849. The church which had been 
built in 1827 w^as still the only place of Methodist wor- 
ship, and it was sadly out of keeping with the beautiful 
residences which crowned the hill- tops about Macon. 
But for the financial burdens the college had imposed, 
it had long since been replaced by a better one ; but the 
college was scarcely finished before a financial crash 
came which ruined a large number of the \vealthiest 
and most liberal men of Macon, and for years the col- 
lege property seemed inevitably lost ; but now it was 
safe, and during the pastorate of W. R. Branham a new 
church was decided upon. Architectui*al elegance in 
the early days of Methodism has always given way to 
convenience, and the moderns have followed in the foot- 
steps of the ancients ; so that, while few buildings answer 
more perfectly the purposes of a church than the Mul- 
berry Street Church in Macon, few have less pretension 
to architectural beauty. The church was not completed 
till James E. Evans came in 1850. It was then most 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



479 



liaudsomely finished. It is somewhat remarkable tliat 
after the building of a good churcli a revival almost in- 
variably follows, and daring this year there was a most 
gracious meeting, and the membership ran up to 417. 
Much of this sketch, as of each one of the cit}^ churches, 
is dry detail. We can do no moi-e, and w^e have not 
thought it best to do less. The careless way in which all 
but the most general records are kept, and the fact that 
most of them are destroyed, renders access to them — if 
it can be had — almost useless ; but the minutes tell that 
the religious contributions of the Macron Church, only 
reported in full since 1855, were large and generous. 
They have gone beyond those of any church in the 
State. The support accorded to the preacher in charge 
has always been ample, and no church has passed be- 
yond, and but few have equalled, this city in its liberal 
payment of those in charge of its churches. The annual 
conference has repeatedly held its sessions in Macon, 
and has ahvays been hospitably entertained. 

We need not pursue the current history beyond this 
point. The lists of preachers in Macon from 1850 are 
within ]'each of all. Gracious revivals have blessed the 
city frecpiently, and not a year has passed without 
some good work being done. The Yineville charge 
was merged in that of Macon after a few years, and 
two preachers were appointed to the station. A mis- 
sionary to the colored people was sent each year, and in 
1856 a city missionary was appointed.- In 1860 a neat 
brick chapel w^as built on Arch Street. It was bui-ned 
the same year, and in 1862-3 a second church was 
begun. This charge became a separate one, known as 
the First Street Church, and has growm to be quite an 
important one. In 1859 a Sunday-school was estab- 



480 



raSTORY OF METHODISM 



lislied ill East Macon, and out of it grew a church.' 
There is now in that village a neat building and a sep- 
arate pastor. Jones' Chapel was built just out of the 
city limits, on the west of the city, and is served by 
a pastor supported mainly by the Mulberry Stj-eet 
Church. Services are held at the colleo;e on Sundav 
night, and, including the college chapel, there are now 
in Macon eight separate places of worship for the 
Methodists. 

/All the colored church went from us during the wai*, 
except a faithful few, who form the Colored Methodist 
Episcopal Church in the cit}^ The African Metho- 
dists, Avho have a large number of the old members, 
have a handsome building. There is, then, in Macon 
three large brick Methodist churches, one neat chui-ch 
in East Macon, one mission chapel, and the Vineville 
Church. In no part of the State have the labors of the 
Methodist preacher been more fruitful, and nowhere 
has the liberal co-operation of the laymen been more 
cheerful. 

The church in Macon has been well served by the 
ablest men in the Church, and it has always had ad- 
ditional advantage in the services of the preachers at 
the college. They have always been, able men, and 
ready to work, and have held regular services in their 
own chapel during the week and on every Sunday 
night. It has not been a usual thing for a year to pass 
without a graci(nis revival among the college girls. 

The Macon Church has always been noted for its 
good women. It would not be, perhaps, proper here to 
speak of the living, and among the faithful dead we are 
not to choose. 

The laymen of the Church have been among the 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



481 



most conservative and liberal in any church. There 
has never been a schism or a rebellion in the history 
of the Church. They have received the appointee of 
the conference without complaint, and supported him 
cheerfully, wliether they preferred him or not. 

Among the good laymen who have served the Macon 
Church in days gone by, and gone to their reward, it is 
difficult to choose any for special mention. Wm. Fort 
was among the first and the most liberal. He was a 
merchant of the finest capacity, and being one of the 
great firm of Baxter, Fort & Wiley, who did the largest 
business in Macon, he was able to do much for the 
Church when it needed help. Everard Hamilton, who 
was connected with the firm of Hamilton & Harde- 
man, was an active and useful man, very liberal with 
his means, and very broad in his views. Thomas Har- 
deman, his partner, was one of the purest and best of 
men. Fond of the Church, fond especially of the good 
old songs of early time, he sang with fervor and sweet- 
ness, and prayed with the deepest pathos. He was a 
blameless man, honored and beloved by all ; one who 
passed through waves of deep aflliction both in body 
and mind, who passed through great reverses, but pre- 
served his integrity in all his trials. W. A. Eoss, one 
of the most active merchants, whose liberal means 
were always at the service of the Church, and wliQse 
elegant home was the resting-place of many ^ weary 
itinerant. 

Robert P. McEvoy, the associate q,nd friend of II. A. 
Smith, was one of the younger line of active Christian 
men. He was a most entex-prising and successful busi- 
ness man. He made largely, and though not rich, was 
always among the first in his contributions to good ob- 



482 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



jects. His devotion to the Church was that of quiet, 
undemonstrative love. Business confinement at last was 
too much for a naturally feeble constitntioUj and he 
died from consumption early in life. 

His friend and associate in church affairs was Basil 
A. Wise. Coming to Macon a handsome, energetic, but 
poor young man, he succeeded by diut of his own 
energy in accumulating a large fortune. He passed 
safely through all the perils of the army, and after its 
close entered with earnestness into business again, mar- 
ried happily, and was an active worker and a liberal 
contributor to the Church. When in the vigor of his 
life, and the midst of his usefulness, he died. There 
are many living now who from early manhood have 
stood by the Church in Macon, and wlio are still labor- 
ing to keep the Church there what it has been in the 
past. Had we space, we would be glad to tell of others, 
but we must forbear. 

COLUMBUS. 

The city of Columbus was laid out in 1827. It is 
located at the head of navigation on the Chattahoochee 
River. The lands for a considerable distance around it 
in Georgia and Alabama are very fertile, and it early be- 
came a place of considerable commercial importance. 
James Stockdale, who was on the Columbus Mission, 
founded the church in the then village in 1828. The next 
year Andrew Hammill, who was presiding elder on the 
district, had the church in charge, and that year a plain 
wooden church was built. Cassell Harrison, who fol- 
lowed him, found a society already numbering fifty-four 
members. He added fifty to it, and Jesse Boring fol- 
lowed him. It was young Boring^s fi]*st year of sta- 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



483 



tioned life. During this year there was a great revival. 
The town now numbered about 1,600 inhabitants, and 
there were three churches in it. The religious interest 
was so great that the congregations were too large for 
the church, and in the beautiful grove around it a stand 
was built, upon which the young preacher preached 
nntil conference. The old wooden church was torn 
down, and a small brick church was erected. This was 
the first brick church among the Methodists in Georgia, 
and when the young preacher went to conference he 
was not only able to report this fact, but an addition to 
the Church of over eighty members. 

Dr. Few now came to the cliurch, and seems to have 
had a prosperous year, for he reported 162 white mem- 
bers. The new station had tripled its membership in 
three years. 

The town was growing rapidly, and many came to it 
who had been in the church before, but there was a de- 
cided religious interest in it, and the church was grow- 
ing most rapidly. 

Jesse Boring was sent on the station in January, 
1833, and there was still increase reported at the suc- 
ceeding conference. The report of the collections 
indicate that the Church was liberal and able, since Co- 
lumbus sent up for the conference fund $166.06, much 
the largest sum reported from any station. Benj. Pope 
was the successor of Jesse Boring, and 281 mem- 
bers were reported, an increase of eighty-one dur- 
ing the year. Although Columbus received a large 
accession of members from new citizens moving in who 
were already members of the Church, there is evidence 
in these minute figures of great religious vitality. 
Thos. Samford came at the next conference. Dr. 



484 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



Pierce had now removed his home to the west of the 
State, and fixed it in Columbus, and was appointed the 
station in 1836, and his labors were greatly blessed, 
for at the end of the second year 416 members were 
reported. The work was now so considerable that 
when A. Speer was sent in charge, an assistant was 
required, who was to be supplied by the presidini^ 
elder. S. K. Hodges, the presiding elder, resided in 
Columbus, and so did Lovick Pierce, who was now 
Agent of the Wesley an Female College in Macon. Dur- 
ing this year there was a most remarkable revival, and 
over 200 were added to the Church. Speer, Samuel 
K. Hodges, and Dr. Pierce were all workers in the 
meeting, and there was such an influence felt as Colum- 
bus had never known. 1839 was a year of revivals, 
Macon had been wonderfully blessed all through the 
circuits, the revival fire had burned, and now Columbus 
was the recipient of showers of richest refreshing. 
The revival came when revivals frequently come, after 
commercial disasters have swept from business men the 
earnings of a lifetime. 1839 was a year of bankruptcies 
and of revivals ; and while Cohimbus, in common with 
every business community, has suffered temporarily, she 
was blessed spiritually. 

The revival influence was tremendous. The city had 
not perhaps more than 4,000 inhabitants, and it was 
stirred to its depths. 

During the revival Jesse Boring, who had married in 
Columbus, returned to it on a visit and one night 
preached. He had not concluded his sermon before so 
tremendous was the gust of feeling that the whole con- 
gregation rose to its feet, and the altar was thronged 
with weeping penitents. The scene was one such as is not 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1T85-1S65. 



485 



often seen, and the impression it made has never been 
effaced from the memories of the few who now live who 
were present that night. 

The report at the conference was a total membership 
of 970, of whom 570 w^ere white. Dr. Pierce and G. J. 
Pearce were sent to the charge the next year. As, alas ! 
was too common, there was after such an ingathering 
a decrease in numbers, and only 378 wliite members are 
reported for 1840. James B. Payne, whose labors had 
been crowned with such success elsewhere, was sent to 
the station with Matliew Eaiford, whose early years had 
been spent in the Asbury Mission, near Columbus, 
when Indians were still in the woods. It was a 
successful year, and MO members are reported at the 
next conference. James B. Payne was returned the 
next year, but what was gained while he was there 
seems to have been lost during the year 1844. In 
1844, Daniel Curry was the preacher in charge. The 
wdiole Church was now in a ferment, resulting from 
the course of tlie general conference. Mr. Curry was 
then, as now, a bold and decided man, and his utterances 
was very offensive to the people, so that by the middle 
of the year Mr. Curry preferred to leave the South 
forever. He returned to the North, and his after-his- 
tory is so well known that it is not needful now to refer 
to it. 

Caleb W. Key, who was in Talbotton, was required 
by the Bishop to take his place, and entered upon his 
work under many discouragements, and remained till 
the close of the year. Jas. E. Evans was appointed to 
succeed him. He found the congregation sadly ham- 
pered for want of a new church. They owned a large 
and most beautiful lot, and on it there was built a 



486 



HISTORY or METHODISM 



clinrcli for the colored people, a room for a free school, 
and the old brick church. The question of building 
liad been agitated, and now, by the persuasion of the 
preacher, all the old buildings were removed from the 
lot, and a very handsome church was erected upon a 
most beautiful spot in the centre of it. During the 
year there was a gracious revival, and an accession 
of nearly 200 members. The next year Evans returned, 
and with him Miller H. White, whose health had to 
some extent given way, and who was placed in charge 
of the colored members ; at the close of the second year 
of Evans on the station, 531 whites were reported in the 
minutes. Dr. Boring was now sent in charge of the 
work, and the new church, which had been begun the 
year before, was completed, and was dedicated to the 
worship of God by its projector. Rev. Jas. E. Evans. 
The collection on that day amounted to over $3,000, 
entirely relieving the church from all incumbrance. 
Dr. Boring was placed on the district, and Bishop 
Pierce was sent in charge of the station. He w^as 
chosen that summer the President of Emory College, 
and the next year Samuel Anthony took his place in 
Columbus. Great success followed his labors, and 
Columbus again reached the point it had held after 
the great revival of 1839, and 570 white members were 
again reported. Samuel Antliony was now placed on 
the district, and Dr. Lovick Pierce, with Jos. S. Key 
as his assistant, on the station. Though there was 
decline, yet the Church never lost again the high place 
it had reached. Still there were only 475 members 
reported at the next conference. At this, the Confer- 
ence of 1851, Samuel Anthony was continued on the dis- 
trict, and Wm. M. Crumley was now sent upon the 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



487 



station. He began his work under many discourage- 
ments. A timid man, who had had few early advantages 
and who had but little confidence in liimself, he fol- 
lowed some of the first preachers in the conference, 
lie began his labors for a revival, and, after six weeks 
of effort and of daily public prayer, he had no evidence 
of success. Bat then the work began, and a gracious 
revival swept the city ; and at the next conference there 
were 706 members in the Columbus Chuj'ch. Among 
the converts were some who became travelling preach- 
ers in the conference, and many who have been leading 
laymen in it. Beyond this period we may not pursue 
the history in detail. A second church became a 
necessit}', although St. Luke's was so large a building, - 
and St. Paul's Church was built in 1858. Over the/ 
river was the village of Girard, in Alabama, and a\ 
church was built there ; then one was built at the Fac- 
tory, then one on Broad Street. The colored people 
with the aid of the whites built themselves a large! 
church, and their history is identical with that of the 
other congregations of the kind in the cities. They 
left the church which had labored for them in the days 
of slavery, and united with the African Methodists. 

The conference has frequently been held in Colum- 
bus and has always been kindly cared for. In one of 
the previous chapters of this history we have already 
told of the novel generosity of the city in 1836, when 
they contributed $1,631 one day to the relief of the 
preachers deficient in their salaries. In 1854 the Gen- 
eral Conference held its session in Columbus, and for 
one month the city and the preachers were mutually 
delighted with each other. 

In no place in Georgia is Methodism relatively 



48S 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



Stronger than in Colinnbiis. The membership of the 
church is large, and has always been noted for its liber- 
ality of view and for its genuine piety. From the 
beo;innino; the church has been blessed with a most 
valuable body of lay members. 

Hon. Walter T. Colquitt died in Columbus. He was 
for many years a leading public man in Georgia, having 
been Senator in Congress and Judge of the Superior 
Court. He had been converted when a young lawyer 
and soon felt it his duty to act as a lay preacher. 
Throughout all his public life he was a bold defender 
of Christian truth. He would open his courts with 
pra^'cr when a Judge, and preach regularly in Washing- 
ton when a Senator. He was a man of strong convic- 
tions, was bold in avowing, and earnest in defending 
them. He, of course, in the high political excitement 
of the times incurred hostilities, but he bore neither 
malice himself, nor was it long felt towards him. He 
was a man of great power at the bar, on the stump^ and 
in the pulpit. He married twice, and left several chil- 
dren and an excellent widow. Of his sons, Col. Peyton 
Colquitt was in his youth a member of the church in 
Columbus, and w^as killed while leading his regiment at 
Chickamauga, and General Alfred H. Colquitt, now 
Governor of Georgia, a leadirjg layman of the North 
Georgia Conference, fills well his father's vacant place 
in the church. 

James M. Chambers was for many years a prominent 
layman in Columbus. He was a successful planter, a 
man of broad views, genuine piety, and great devotion 
to the church's interest. He was for many years the 
President of the Board of Trustees at Oxford, and in all 
the benevolent enterprises of the church was always 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1805. 



489 



found among the most active workers. He labored 
every where w^ith great efficiency ; in prayer-meetings, 
and Sunday-school, as well as on mission and college 
boards. 

Dr. Urquhart, who still lives a useful man, and the 
last of the old line, Hamilton Smith, who afterwards 
was a leading member of the church in Mobile, the 
Fleweyllers, and many other families among the oldest 
aiud truest Methodists in the State, gave to the church 
their aid in its days of trial as well of prosperity. 

In few cities has there been such uninterrupted suc- 
cess to the church's labors as in Columbus. In 1857 
and 1858 Columbus w^as visited by the most wonderful 
revival in her history. Alexander M. Wynn was pastor 
of the Methodist Church and James M. Austin w^as 
with him as junior. The meetings w^ere conducted 
frequently by laymen, and the whole church seemed to 
be aroused to an activity like to that of the days of the 
primitive church ; for weeks and months the work went 
on and hundreds were added to the different churches. 
There are now in Columbus St. Luke's, St. Paul's, 
Broad Street, Trinity, Girard, white churches, and the 
colored congregations, six churches in all, while nearly 
one- fourth of the population are communicants of the 
Methodist church. 

Atlanta. 

The terminus selected for the railways which con- 
nected the West and the Atlantic was fixed at a point 
in De Kalb County, called at first simply the Terminus, 
and afterw^ards Marthas ville ; in 1846 this name was 
changed to Atlanta. In a very short time after the 
location of the town was fixed, larsre numbers of adven- 



490 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



tnrers and a few solid men were attracted to it. It 
was then in the bounds of the Decatur Circuit, and the 
preachers soon had an appointment there. The first 
preaching was in the depot of the Western and Atlantic 
Ilailwa3\ In the early part of 1847, Edwin Payne, who 
was a decided and zealous Methodist, and who had re- 
moved to a farm on the then outskirts of the town, 
gave a lot for a church on which an academy was built. 
In this all denominations were permited to preach, and 
not long after another small academy was built on the 
western side of the city, and in it there was occasional 
preaching. Atlanta in the early part of 1847 became 
a regular appointment in the Decatur Circuit, and 
Anderson Kay and Eustace W. Speer preached there 
every two weeks at niglit. In that year a Union Sunday- 
school was formed, under the superintendency of a 
good Pj-esbyterian, O. S. Hurston. Through the exer- 
tions of Edwin Payne and some other brethren, a sub- 
scription of $700 was raised to build a wooden church. 
It was begun in the spring of 1847. During that sum- 
mer, Bishop Andrew, George AV. Lane, Dr. Means, and 
the circuit pi'eachers, held a four days meeting in a 
warehouse in the city, which was quite successful. By 
the time the shell of the building was finished and floor- 
ing and sash put in, the funds were all exhausted, and 
the church was still Vv'ithout pews or seats of any kind. 
A number of puncheons were secured and thus seats 
were provided, while a rude platform with the prescrip- 
tion table of Dr. Smith, formed the pulpit. Jolm W, 
Yarbrough and James W. Ilinton were now in charge 
of the circuit. Although the first Baptist churcli, which 
was aided by the Home Missionary Society, was the first 
church com])leted in Atlanta, in the first Metliodist 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



491 



Clinrcli there was tlie earliest religious service of any 
regular house of worshij) in the city. There were sev- 
eral local preachers in Atlanta, who supplied the lack 
of service on the part of the circuit preachers, and ever 
and anon a travelling preacher, passing tlu'ough, filled 
the pulpit, or laymen gathered the members together 
and read one of Morris's or Wesley's sermons. The 
church rapidly grew, and by the beginning of the j^ear 
1849 the house was supplied with pews, and was filled 
ever}^ Sunday with an attentive congregation. Lewis 
Lawshe, of whom w^e have spoken in the history of the 
Church in Macon, had now removed to Atlanta. He 
was a local preacher of great piety and a man of great 
affability. He was the moving cause in the establish- 
ment of the first Methodist Sunday-school in the city. 
This was done in the year 1848. He was the first super- 
intendent. During the year 1849 under the ministry of 
Eev. John W. Yarbrough and Alexander M. Wynn, 
there was a great revival in the city, and at the end of 
that year there were several hundred in the church. 

The next year Atlanta was made a station^ and Silas 
H. Cooper was appointed to it. He was not suited to 
the work, and remained only a part of the year, and Dr. 
James L. Pierce succeeded him. He was very much 
esteemed, and while he was in charge Bishop Pierce, 
then President of Emory College, assisted him in a pro- 
tracted meeting, and preached with wonderful power. 
At the next conference Chas. W. Thomas, a young Eng- 
lishman, who afterwards joined the Episcopal Church, 
was in charge. The next year W. H. Evans was ap- 
pointed to the station. The membership was not large, 
nor was there a wealthy man in it. There was no par- 
sonage, and when the preaclier came he was forced to 



492 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



occupy two rooms in the house of another person. He, 
however, w^as not the man to be conquered by difficul- 
ties, and he soon had a parsonage built. He sought out 
and gathered in the unaffiliated members, and labored 
earnestly and successfully for a revival of religion. He 
established a Sunday-school, and afterwards built a 
chapel in the southwest of the city, and at the end of 
two years reported to the conference 460 white and 100 
colored members. The debt of gratitude due to W. H. 
Evans by the Methodists of Atlanta is indeed a great 
one, and the wisdom of the Church in sending a man of 
ability and experience to this work is evident. During 
this year Gi'eene B. Haygood^ who had been for years a 
leadii]g layman of the Cliurch in Watkinsville, removed 
to Atlanta^ and seeing the necessity for a church in the 
central part of the city, secured an eligible lot and had 
a neat brick church erected. Trinity Church was the 
first brick church built in Atlanta, and at the conference 
of 1863 John P. Duncan and James M. Austin were 
sent in charge. There wei'e now three churches in 
Atlanta, but they were under one pastoral charge, and 
so continued for several years. Trinity then became a 
separate charge, and Evans Chapel was a mission sta- 
tion. The Church continued slowly to advance. The 
congregation of the first church, known as Wesley 
Chapel, was sadly hampered by the character of the 
building, which, in a few j^ears after it was built, was 
neither large enough nor comely enough for its needs. 
We are not now to trace the work in detail, but a])pend 
the list of preachers up to the time of the war. 1854, 
Saml. Anthony ; 1855, Chas. R. Jewett ; 1856, Wesley 
Chapel, C. W. Key— Trinity, H. J. Adams ; 1857, Wes- 
ley Chapel, Caleb W. Key— Trinity, R. B. Lester ; 1858, 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



493 



Jas. B. Payiie, Trinity— E. B. Lester; 1860^ Wesley 
Chapel, Wm. J. Scott — Trinity, Jno. C. Simmons — City 
Mission, Jas. B. Payne. There was now 610 members 
in the two churches, and 130 in the City Mission. At- 
lanta was the centre of military operations from the 
beo-innino; of the war, but the work of the Church went 
on. W. J. Scott was sent in 1861 to Wesley, and Geo. 

G. K McDonnell to Trinity ; in 1862, Jas. W. Hinton 
to Wesley, H. H. Parks to Trinity, and W. II. Evans to 
the City Mission; in 1863, Lorenzo D. Huston, to Wes- 
ley, and II. H. Parks to Trinity. The Federal troops 
were moving upon Atlanta, and in August of the year 
1864, the city fell into their hands ; and shortly after- 
wards, after having sent all the citizens out of it, Gen. 
Sherman applied the torch to it, and it was burned 
to the ground. All the Methodist churches, however, 
escaped the flames. 

The Federal army had not long left Atlanta before 
the preachers were back at their posts. A. M. Thizpen 
and Atticus G. Hay good, were sent to gather np the 
scattered flocks. The exiles returned to their ruined 
homes, and by the end of the year there was 227 mem- 
bers in Wesley Chapel, and 250 in Trinity. Atlanta 
soon more than recovered from her injuries, and the 
Church grew with the city. Evans Chapel Mission 
became a third charge, and under the care of Rev. 
Wm. C. Dunlap, Payne's Chapel was organized. A 
Sunday-school commenced in the east end of the city 
resulted in a Mission, and under the care of Kev. Geo. 

H. Pattillo became a flfth Methodist church. The old 
Wesley Chapel was torn down, and the foundation of 
a magnificent brick church was laid, which when com- 
pleted will be among the handsomest church buildings 



494 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



in the city. Trinity Church was sold, and a chnrch 
was built on Whitehall Street, which is the most ele- 
gant Methodist church in the State. There are now in 
1876, over 1,500 Methodists in the city of Atlanta 
alone, in addition to the number in the suburban 
churches, Edgewood and Kirkwood. 

Atlanta Methodism owes much to the first laymen of 
the city. They were most of them plain men who loved 
the church and of their small means gave mnch towards it. 

Edwin Payne sold his farm on Yellow Kiver and 
purchased one near the village of Marthasville. This 
farm is now in the heart of Atlanta. He was a most 
decided and devoted Methodist, and it was through his 
instrumentality that the first church was begun. The 
lot upon which it was located w^as given by him, and 
the first contributions to it were secured by himself. 
He lived to see Atlanta, what in his far-seeing wisdom 
he had expected it to be, a large and prosperous city, 
and in his very old age gave a lot for the erection of 
another church, which when finished was known as 
Payne's Chapel. 

Green B. Hay good was a prominent lawyer of Clarke 
County, and removed to Atlanta where his services 
Avere much needed by the church. He saw the neces- 
sity for a church in the central part of the city, and 
through his exertions the first Trinity Church was com- 
pleted. He superintended the first Sundaj^-school in 
the charge, and was one of the most faithful workers 
in every department of the church. He was a man of 
remarkable common sense, and of great energy, and 
as remarkable for his consistent and active piety. His 
wife, who still lives, was a true helpmeet in the work 
of building up the church. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



495 



Hubbard W. Cozart, a shrewd, fuu-loviiigj energetic 
business man, possessed of considerable estate, removed 
from Gainesville to Atlanta, and was one of the most 
active of the early members. 

Joseph Winship, a Northern man by birth, and a 
mechanic who had made a large fortune by gin manu- 
facituring, came to Atlanta and built some large car 
shops. He w^as an earnest and a very liberal Metho- 
dist, and was of great service to the Church. 

These are some among the worthy dead. Some of 
the most useful men of the early Church there, still 
live and still work, and we are thus precluded from 
making public mention of their labors. 

We have now taken a survey of Methodism in the 
rural districts, and of Methodism in the cities. We 
have seen that its success has been alike great in both 
fields. The flexible machinery of Methodism adapts 
itself to all varying circumstances and conditions. It is 
perhaps the leading religious body in every city in the 
State. Its churches are perhaps not so elegant, its peo- 
ple are not generally so wealthy, but the numbers m its 
fold are greater and the masses of the people attend 
upon its ministrations. Its pews are in nearly all in- 
stances free, and there is no section of a city, however 
poor, in which Methodism has not either a mission 
chapel, or a regular station. It has been a question 
whether an itinerancy is suited to a growing city ; but if 
facts are to decide it, the study of the facts recorded in 
this chapter will answer that it is. The frequent 
changes in the pastor, w^hile for some reasons it is to 
be objected to, has more generally proved a blessing 
than a curse, and those churches in which these changes 
have been regular, and comparatively frequent, have 



496 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



prospered most. The course pursued in the cities, of 
dividing to conquer, has been eminently judicious and 
successful. Large churches, elegant and wealthy, with 
a membership of over 500, may gratify one's church 
pride, but the study of this history shows that in every 
case wliere a church of over 300 members has colonized, 
there has been rapid growth. The adaptation of the 
buildings to the character of the community, has been 
another lesson taught. Whenever the church has been 
old and shabby, and the surroundings fresh and new, 
there has been stagnation, and a liberal expenditure for 
a good building has been invariably followed by great 
advance. The liberal expenditure of missionary money 
in the cities in developing feeble charges, has been vin- 
dicated by the results of the work. 

There are other cities in the State which deserve 
notice, but om^ space is too limited for a full account of 
the work in them, and their history is too recent to pre- 
sent many features of general interest. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, l';&5-1865. 



497 



CHAPTEE XIII. 

Education— Missions— Benevolence, etc. 

As early as the coiiference of 1789, the second in 
Georgia, as we have seen, it was decided to establish a 
scliool under the conti'ol of that body. It was to be 
called the Wesley and Whitfield School. The plan was 
to secure a lot of 500 acres of land, and to erect suita- 
ble buildings upon it. Hope Hull was, in all probabil- 
ity, the leading spirit in the matter, and he was seconded 
in his efforts by the wealthy and public-spirited Virgin- 
ians who had seated in Wilkes. John Crutchfield, 
Thomas Grant, and David Merriwether were the early 
friends of the new school. Bishop Asbury, as we have 
already noted, rode with Hope Hull, who was on the 
Burke circuit, during the next year, to the forks of the 
Ogechee, in what was then the lower part of Wilkes 
County, to select a tract of land for the school. John 
Crutchfield was at work to secure subscriptions. They 
were to be made in cattle, rice, tobacco or land. Success 
does not seem to have attended the efforts made, but 
Hope Hull, after his location, received a deed to some 
land from David Meriiwether, for the school, and the 
Succoth Academy was established in AVilkes Co. 
Lewis Myers, who attended it, says the building was of 
logs, and the school was under the rectorship of a Mr. 
Brown, a Presbvterian minister, who was afterward a 
prominent worker in the great revival in Kentucky in 
1799. Mr. Hull was not a classical scholar, and while 



598 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



he had cliarge of the school he employed competent 
teacliers for the more advanced studies. Some of the 
most distinguished men in Georgia here received their 
educational training. This academy was located about 
three miles from Washington. This was one of the 
first classical schools in upper Georgia. We can get no 
further view of it after the one given by Lewis Myers. 
This sturdy young German came on foot from South 
Carolina to attend its sessions as early as 1796. 
When Lorenzo Dow visited Hope Hull in 1802, he 
found him farming and teaching at this place. 

There w^ere no further efforts to establish a church 
school for nearly thirty years. Li Salem, Clarke Co., 
one was established by some Methodists, and in 1820, 
application was niade to the South Carolina Conference, 
to take the school under its patronage. This request, 
says Dunwody, m^et with considerable opposition from 
some of the preachers, who feared it was the entering- 
wedge to a requirement for ministerial education, and 
from a fear that the church would become involved in 
financial difficulties by the endorsement of it. These 
fears being removed, the school was adopted by the 
conference as a church institutian. The Bethel school, 
in Abbeville, of which Stephen Olin was rector, w^as 
already prosperous, and tlie Salem school w^as designed 
to meet a like want in the Geoi-gia territory. It does 
not seem to have made much progress, or to have se- 
cured extensive patronage. Wm. J. Parks went to it 
to study Grammar, and while he was there he was 
licensed to preach. Immediately after the division of 
the South Carolina Conference, and the formation of 
the Georgia, the question of church education was agi- 
tated all over the Church. The General Conference of 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



499. 



1828 had urged the Church to steps in this direction. 
There was no Methodist colleo-e south of Maryland, so 
Randolph Macon College was established in Virginia, 
and not long aftei'ward the La Grange College was es- 
tablished in Florence, Alabaina. Each desired to secure 
the patronage of the Georgia Conference, and Wm. Mc 
Mahon, from Tennessee, and John Early, from Yirginia, 
visited the Georgia Conference, which met in La Grange, 
in January, 1832, to represent their respective institu- 
tions. Dr. Olin had been elected president of Ran- 
dolph Macon, and this, perhaps, led the conference to 
decide upon Eaiidolpli Macon, and to resolve to raise 
$10,000 to endow a professorship in that institution. 
Dr. Few does not seem to have endorsed this plan, for 
he was even then firm in his belief that Georgian Meth- 
odism should have a college of its own; and through his 
influence the conference, while resolving to raise $10,000, 
appointed no agent to do it. 

At this conference the village of Culloden, at which 
there was a school of high grade, made some advan- 
tageous offers to the conference, looking to the estab- 
lishment of a Church school there. The conference 
did not at once accede to its offer, but decided to let 
the matter lay over for twelve months. At the confer- 
ence in Washington the next yeai% the proposition took 
definite shape, urging the establishment of a manual 
labor school, and offering inducements for its location 
in Culloden. Dr. Few entered into the scheme with all 
ardor, and advocated it on the conference floor. Dr. 
Olin, still a member of the Georgia Conference, was 
present to urge the endowment of Randolph Macon, 
and to secure the conference influence, and opposed the 
movement at that time. It was a brave fight these two 



500 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



giants made, and they both conquei^ed, for tlie conference 
decided to appoint an agent for Randolph Macon and 
an agent for a manual labor school, to be established 
at some place not designated. Elijah Sinclair was to be 
agent for Randolph Macon, and John Howard for the 
Manual Labor School. 

A committee was appointed, consisting of Saml. K. 
Hodges, James O. Andrew, Lovick Pierce, and Dr. 
Few, who were to decide upon the plan for the school. 
They met in Macon. Culloden made a tender of 
valuable lands and buildings. Covington sent Dr. A. 
Means and Rev. Allen Turner to represent the fitness 
of that village for the school. The committee decided 
upon locating it in Covington. Dr. Means was elected 
to take charge of it, and sent upon a tour through the 
North to get infornjation with reference to such schools. 
Dr. Means kindly furnishes the rest of the story. 

" I did as requested, and on my return reported to the 
board the results of my interview with the venerable 
Dr. William Fisk, President of the Wesleyan University, 
at Middletown, Conn., Dr. Nathan Bangs, of New York, 
and many others, upon the various and interesting 
topics connected with tliis new enterprise. 

" That accomplished classical scholar, excellent man, 
and popular preacher, Rev. G. W. Lane — son of the 
worthy Mr. Geo. Lane of New York, who was long 
connected with the ' Methodist Book Concern ' in that 
city — was elected by the Board as his assistant teacher, 
and to whom was mainly committed the department of 
the languages. Rev. Greo. H. Round was subsequently 
employed to aid in the work." 

For four years the Manual Labor School progressed 
with almost unprecedented popularity, such was the 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-18(55. 



501 



public desire to connect a knowledge of aoTicnltiiral 
pursuits with a course of literary and scientific instruc- 
tion in the education of the young of our sex. The 
Superintendent had application for admission from six 
surrounding States, and also from Florida, then a terri- 
tory, and such were the urgent appeals to admit students 
from abroad that the conference felt itself constrained 
to pass a resolution, interdicting the admission of pupils 
from other States, until the claims of their own people 
were first met. Indeed, the popular estimation of the 
system was such, that the superintendent reports that 
during the period mentioned, and up to the time of the 
establishment of Emory College, he was constrained, for 
want of sufficiently ample accommodation, and in con- 
formity with the conference " resolution," to reject prob- 
ably 500 applicants from abroad. It still continued for 
about two years afterwards in active operation under 
the superintendence of Eev. Geo. H. Round. The col- 
lege board then bought out the concern, assumed its 
debts, and the system was abandoned. It is true that 
among so large a number of students, promiscuously 
assembled and received from all classes of society, and 
during the prevalence of our " peculiar institution," 
there were many pupils who were reluctant to conform 
to the rules and duties of the farming department. 
Such annoyances were to be expected in working out 
this complex regime, so novel and untried in the South. 
But this \vas not regarded as the primary funda- 
mental cause for abandoning the system. It was debt 
constantly accumulating, inexorable debt. To keep the 
complicated machinery in motion required the inevi- 
table incurrence of expenses which the utmost possible 
clear income from the farm proved insufficient to meet 



502 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



To supply so large a body of inexperienced workers, for 
only three hours in the afternoon of each day, it be- 
came necessary to stock the farm with two or three 
times as many horses or mules, plows and gears, hoes, 
and axes, etc., etc., as any thrifty farmer would require, 
who could employ his hands in cultivation during the 
whole day, Saturday included, but which, by long stand- 
ing usage in other schools — the students claimed. From 
this triple supply of farming implements there was 
necessarily a greater loss by breakage, waste, black- 
smiths' bills, etc., to which maj^ be superadded the 
large annual amount paid to the students for every hour's 
work, and the interest on the money invested witliout 
corresponding returns from the farm. It proved to be, 
therefore, an onerous, unprofitable, and losing enterprise, 
and prudence required its aliandonment. And the 
same fruitful sources of financial disaster have caused 
the failure of almost every other similar establishment 
in the North and West. Perhaps, however, an institu- 
tion supplied with a large " sinking fund" or a liberal 
endowment mi2s:ht be warranted in reinauoniratino* the 
system, and thus securing the benefits which the com- 
bination of labor with study promises to besto\^^ 

But a school, however high its grade, and however ' 
useful as an adjunct, was not a college, and Dr. Few 
and some of his progressive friends felt the need of a 
liigher institution, and they resolved there should be 
one. The times were prosperous. The Baptist Manual 
Labor School was to be transformed into a Baptist col- 
lege. Virginia was too remote, the La Grange College 
out of reach, and there was no other college west of 
the Savannah. 

At the conference in Columbus, in Dec, lSe36, Sam- 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



503 



uel J. Bryan and Thomas C. Benning were appointed 
agents to collect funds to erect buildings for Emory 
College, now decided upon. The Legislature was in 
session, and in January, 1837, the college was incorpo- 
rated. 

It was decided to establish it in i^ewton County, not 
far from the Manual Labor School. There was a tract 
of land almost entirely in the woods, of fourteen hun- 
dred acres, which was purchased for fourteen thousand 
dollars, and here, one bright spring-day, the foundation 
stone of the college was laid. Dr. Means, and Lovick 
Pierce, John Howard, Dr. Few, Samuel J. Bryan, and 
many others were present ; but of the conference, none 
now remain save Dr. Means and Lovick Pierce. Dr. 
Means thus describes the scene : 

The spot selected for the erection of the first build- 
ing was on virgin soil, in the midst of a widespi-ead 
and luxuriant forest of native oaks — one and a half 
miles from the town of Covington, and within the cor- 
porate limits of Oxford, which received its classical ap- 
pellation at the suggestion and urgent solicitation of 
Dr. 1. A. Few, in honor of the seat of the old English 
University of the same name. All was silence around. 
No sound disturbed the air. The very song-birds in 
their native grove hushed theii* warbling in the vicinity, 
as if loth to disturb the hallowed exercises of the hour. 
It was a lovely day. The sun shone in splendor fi-om 
above, and the earth beneath was robed in its garniture 
of green. Both heaven and earth seemed to shine pro- 
pitiously upon the interesting ceremonies about to trans- 
pire, as the prelude and pledge of the future comple- 
tion and success o£ a great educational establishment, 
under the auspices of Southern Methodism. Quite a 



504 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



number of preachers and laymen were present to do 
honor to the occasion, and among them several of the 
theological magnates of the Church. Many have since 
been called to their reward, while a few still survive. 
Uniting in the solemn services of that day, were Dr. 
Lovick Pierce, Rev. Samuel J. Bryan, Rev. Charles H. 
Sanders, and Dr. A. Means, and many other worthy 
brethren and friends whose names at this late day can- 
not be recalled ; who, standing under the open sky, 
and protected only by the overshadowing foliage of the 
grove, sang with uncovered brow an appropriate hymn to 
the Most High, and then knelt in devout prayer, in which 
their prospective instituti(m, Emory College, was humbly 
dedicated to God — to the interests of her Church, and to 
the great work of Christian civilization, for all time to 
come. Who shall say that the pious services of that day 
did not meet the Divine recognition, and the prayers 
then offered have not already been significantly answer- 
ed in its past history of thirty-eight years, when it is re- 
membered that it has, within that period, given to the 
Church and the world about 580 young men, honored 
with her diploma, and, as nearly as can be now estima- 
ted, 125 of whom have officiated at her altars as Minis- 
ters of the Gospel, in this and in foreign lands? " 

In Aug., 1839, the college was opened for the recep- 
tion of students. Ignatius A. Few was its first presi- 
dent, and Alex. Means and George W. Lane professors. 

The agents had met with wondei'fiil success on jpaper. 
Dr. Few reported that $100,000 had been secured ; 
alas ! it was not secured, though, much of it, promised. 
The college had just incurred its heaviest liabilities 
when came the fearful crash of 1837, followed by five 
years of financial depression, and through this she had 



IN GE3RGIA AND FLORIDA, 17S5-1865. 



505 



to struggle. Dr. Few resigned his presidency. Jfei- 
tlier his health nor his inclinations suited the lectnre- 
room, and Judge A. B. Longstreet was chosen to take 
his place. His history we have already glanced at. 
He was admirably suited for the position to which he 
was now called. A stern sense of duty led him to re- 
linquish the most lucrative pi'actice of the law and 
enter the college halls ; even from them he was called 
to his last fee of $10,000. He was a fine scholar, of 
exquisite taste and highest accomplishment, had an 
American fame, was gentle, amiable, and courageous. 
He was possessed of striking common sense and fine 
business sagacity. He found the college deej^ly in 
debt — a portion of its assets consisting in worthless 
notes, and the buildings insafiicient. Assisted by an 
able faculty, he drew to it a large patronage from all 
sections, and wuth great skill managed to extricate it 
from its embarrassments. In 1849 he resigned, and 
Dr. George F. Pierce took his place. He was not only 
to be president, but agent, and he labored untiringly 
for its benefit mitil 1854, when he was placed, by the 
vote of the general conference, in the episcopal chair. 
Dr. Means was then elected to the vacant chair, but 
other duties required his attention, and after a few 
years as president he resigned, and Dr. Thomas was 
his successor. The college was now very prosperous. 
Althouo^h there were two Methodist colleo-esiu southern 
Alabama, one each in Louisiana and Texas, whieh drew 
from its western patronage, and alth(High Wafford Coh 
lege, in South Carolina, had begun its career, yet the 
patronage of Emory was large, and a bright future 
seemed before it, when the war came. The students 
of the college went to the battle-field ; the college build- 
22 



506 



fflSTORY OF METHODISM 



ings were taken for hospitals, and when the war was 
over and the (country fearfully impoverished, the college 
found itself with its buildings gone to decay, and its 
endowment lost in the crash of the banks. Dr. Thomas 
remained a few years as president, and then left Geor- 
gia to take the presidency of the Pacific College. Dr. 
Luther M. Smith was now elected president. He had 
an eminently successful career as a president, and the 
college has since gone forward. Dr. Osborn L. Smith 
followed him, and on his resignation. Dr. Ilaygood was 
elected to the vacant chair. 

The first buildings were very plain. A steward's 
hall, four dormitories, and a plain wooden chapel were 
all. The experiment of boarding the students in the 
hall was not satisfactory and was abandoned, and the 
hall was thenceforth used only for recitation rooms. 
There was no large chapel, and the village church was 
by no means sufHcient for Commencement occasions. 
New facilities were demanded for teaching, and the old 
hall was demolished, and while Bishop Pierce was Pres- 
ident, and largely through his exertions, a very hand- 
some building was erected. It was designed to furnish 
all the rooms needful for each prof essor, for the labo- 
ratory, library, and a most commodious chapel. The 
building was with some little exception most admirably 
suited for the purpose for which it was designed ; but, 
alas ! it was badly constructed, and began to show early 
evidences of weakness. It was abandoned just after the 
war and torn to the ground. The dormitory system was 
BOW given up, and through the earnest efforts of Bishop 
Pierce, where the buildings stood new ones were erected] 
for teaching-rooms. A new chapel and an elegant build J 
ing for the library and laboratory were finished, and now 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



507 



the college has every facility for effective work. There 
are in addition to the buildings of the college proper, 
two very neat Society Halls. Another building, a hand- 
some chapel, is projected, and in good time will be erect- 
ed. The college eai*ly began to take steps towards en- 
dowment. Its plan was to take endowment notes and 
collect the interest. This plan always fails, and it failed 
with this institution. It, however, collected and invest- 
ed what funds it could secure, and at the beginning of 
the war had in bank-stocks, railway stocks, and pej-sonal 
securities, a considerable endowment. When the war 
ended, the banks were all insolvent and the stock was 
worthless, and its State and Confederate bonds were alike 
valueless. The sacrifices demanded of the faculty were 
great, and rendered more so because of the long free 
list among the students. All ministers' sons, all can- 
didates for the ministry unable to pay tuition, were 
taught without charge, and all poor young men who 
were unable to pay tuition on entering were granted 
indulgence, yet the college held on its way. 

At the present time the promise for the favorite insti- 
tution of Greorgia Methodists was never brighter. Al- 
though its endowment is less than $30,000, it is increas- 
ing, and a faculty of great ability draw patronage from 
all sections. 

The villao;e in which the colleo;e is located is a most 
charming one ; the society excellent; no gambling sa- 
loons or bar-rooms near by. Home influences surround 
all the students. The religious interest is always great 
and the larger proportion of the students become active 
Christians. The faculty now consists of A. G. Hay good, 
D.D., President ; George W, Stone, D..D., Mathemat- 
ics ; O. L. Smith, D.D., Latin ; H. A. Scomp, Ph. D., 



508 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



A. M., Greek ; M. Callaway, D.D., English Literature ; 
J. B. Boiinell, A.M., Natural Science ; R. AV. Smitli, 
A.M. 5 Rector^ Prejyaratory School. While some atten- 
tion had been given to Church schools for yonng men, 
nothing had been done up to ISSG, in this direction, for 
young women. 

There were but few female schools of high grade in 
the State, and not a female college in the world. 

A young lawyer, Chandler by name, had made an 
address at the Commencement at Athens, in which he 
declared his belief in tlie mental equality of the sexes, 
and advocated collegiate education for young ladies. 
The address excited much attention, and when the 
young city of Macon, then in the high tide of prosperity, 
proposed to establish a female high school, Elijah Sin- 
clair, then living there, proposed that it should bo a 
regular college. The proposition pleased the people, 
and a liberal subscription was at once secured. There 
w^as a demand for a new bank in Macon, and the appli- 
cants for the charter promised to give $25,000 towards 
the institution, if the charter was granted. In the win- 
ter of 1836 it was secured, the subscription was paid, 
and the building begun. The houses for the college 
work were projected on a large scale, and went rapidly 
forward. Elijah Sinclair was agent and had great suc- 
cess. The main building was beautiful in design, 160 
feet long, sixty feet wdde, and four stories in height. 
The lot secured was on a beautiful hill, commanding a 
view of the most charming nature. So rapidly was the 
work pressed forward, by January 12, 1839, the build- 
ing was ready for use ; before this the original corpora- 
tors decided that while the college should not be secta- 
rian, that it should be placed under the patronage of 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



509 



the Georgia Conference. A president was to be selected, 
and all eyes were turned to Geo. F.Pierce, then Pi-esid- 
ing Elder of the Augusta District. No work could have 
been so pleasant to him as that in which he was engaged, 
and he had little relish for the school-room, but he yielded 
to the solicitations of his friends, aud being in full sym- 
pathy with the object aimed at, he began his work. An 
able faculty was elected, large salaries were promised, 
and soon a considerable patronage was secured. The 
lirst financial exhibit showed about $S0,000 in assets, 
and $50,000 indebtedness ; but this was on jxijyer. The 
crash had come, the Macon banks Avei'e insolvent. 
Many of the best friends of the college had failed, and 
when cool business men examined the financial condi- 
tion, they found the assets worthless, and the debts 
$40,000. The buildings were not quite finished, and 
were mort2:ao:ed. The friends of the colle2:e were 
bankrupts, and the greatest commercial depression was 
over all the land ; impatient creditors sued for their 
claims. The college was put up for sale. Bishop 
Pierce borrowed the money in his own name, and 
bought it in. The plan of paying the faculty stated sal- 
aries had to be abandoned, and Dr. Ellison took the in- 
stitution on its merits. No money could be raised, 
interest was growing, and it seemed that the Georgia 
Female College must be abandoned. Bishop Pierce, 
whose active agency had kept it alive, returned to the 
regular work, and Samuel Anthony took his place. The 
oldest mortgage was foreclosed. He persuaded ten men 
in Macon to buy in the buildings. They did so, paying 
$10,000 for them. Fie then secured from James 
Everett, of Houston County, an offer to the trustees to 
take up the mortgage, and transfer the property to the 



510 



HISTORY OP METHODISM 



Georgia Conference, advancing $8,000 for the purpose, 
on condition that four girls, to be nominated by himself 
or his executors, should be boarded and educated in 
the school in jperpetuo. This was consented to, and the 
college was made the property of the Georgia Confer- 
ence with the name it now bears, the Weslejan Female 
College. Its after-history is well known, and we have 
not the space here to give it. 

Dr. Ellison, Dr. Myers, Dr. O. L. Smith, Dr. Bonnell 
and Di'. Bass have in turn filled the cliair of President, 
and some of the most eminent men in Geoi'gia have 
been in the school as professors. It lias been a school 
of liigh grade, and has been especially a religious one. 
Its influence has extended all over the Southern States, 
and it occupies to-day a place higher than it ever held. 

Female education, after this, was very popular in 
Georgia, and a number of female colleges were estab- 
lished. One in Madison had a career of prosperity until 
it was burned ; one in Cassville met with the same fate. 

The Andrew Female College, in Cuthbert, had a more 
fortunate history, and still exists, and is a prosperous 
and valuable school, belonging to the La Grange Con- 
ference. 

In 1855 the La Grange Female College, one of the 
oldest in the State, and at that time in most prosperous 
condition, was purchased by the Georgia Conference for 
$40,000, the city of La Grange paying $20,000 of the 
amount. It began well, and for several years occupied 
very high place as a Church school. Then the chapel 
building was burned. An eft'ort was made to re-build, 
and the building was near completion wdien the war 
came on and the work stopped. It was about to be 
sold, when, through the exei'tions of Rev. W. J. Scott 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



511 



and the trustees, it was saved from sale, but was still 
unfinished. Then, after many of the friends of the col- 
lege had lost all hope of completing the building, the 
Rev. James R. Maysoii was selected as president and 
agent, and with great energy, aided chiefly by La Grange, 
renewed the work on the buildings, and they are now 
almost completed, sufiiciently so for all needful work. 
They consist of a chapel, with a commodious audience- 
room, and four rooms for the professors underneath, and 
two music-rooms in the upper part of tlie buildbig. 
There is a roomy and comfortable boarding-house on 
the same lot. The buildings are located in the heart of 
the city, on a most beautiful elevation, commanding a 
charming prospect. 

The enterprising city of Dalton gave $10,000 to the 
Methodists of that city to erect a female college, which 
was deeded to the Quarterly Conference of the station ; 
and it is now under the presidency of Rev. W. A. Rogers, 
and in successful operation. The Church is represented 
in the State University, and in institutions, male and 
female, not distinctively Methodist. 

Among the early and constant friends of church 
education in Georgia, have been and still are a large 
number of leading laymen. 

We have already mentioned Col. James M. Chambers, 
long president of the board of trustees in Oxford. 
Everard Hamilton, one of the projectors of the Wes- 
leyan Female College, and James Everett and Josiah 
Flournoy, who founded a manual labor school. 

Among the earliest and most energetic friends of 
church education, one who not only gave his coun- 
sel and his money, but his services, was Major John 
Park. He was a graduate of Franklin College and a 



512 



raSTORY OF METHODISM 



teacher Inmself. He was one of the first trustees of 
Emory College, and when the corner-stone was laid, he 
offered the first prayer. He lost a large estate by en- 
dorsement for others, and removing to La Grange, 
established a Methodist Female Seminary, from which 
the La Grange Female College afterwards sprang. He 
was elected to the presidency of the Everett Mannal 
Labor School, and was there associated with the lamented 
Dr. Myers. He afterwards had a high school in 
Greenville, and Dr. J. M. Bonnell, then a young Penn- 
sylvanian, was his assistant. He was an eloquent, ear- 
nest man, a devoted temperance man, and the first Grand 
Worthy Chief of the Grand Lodge of Sons of Temper- 
ance in Georgia. His home was a Methodist preachers 
home, and he was always a fast friend of the Church. 
He lived a life of great usefulness, and left behind him 
a family nearly all of whom are earnest active members 
of the M. E. Church South. 

Closely connected with the subject in hand is that of 
the religious instruction of children in the Sunday- 
schools. 

The Church has always recognized to some degree 
the importance of the early conversion of children, and 
of their early religious instruction. Mr. Wesley, in 
Savannah, established as early as 1735 a catechetical 
school for tlie children of the parish, after the plan of 
the early Church. When Eol)ert Eaikes years after- 
Avards established his Sunday-school to teach the simplest 
branches of English, in connection with religious truth, 
Mr. Wesley's societies in England gave him their hearty 
support, and Mr. Asbury established one in Virginia. 
The main design of these schools was to teach the igno- 
rant, who had no time to attend school on the week-day, 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



513 



on Sunday, how to I'ead and write. The injunction to 
the helpers and preachers was to talk specially to the 
children, and pray for them and gather them into classes 
when as many as ten could be gathered together. 
This was the custom of the old preachers. The work 
in Georgia was generally circuit work up to 1812. 
Augusta, Savannah and Milledgeville were the only 
stations, and on the circuits the preacher in charge had 
bnt little to do with his people pastorally. 

The first Sunday-school among the Methodists of 
which we can find trace was established in Milledge- 
ville, by Sam'l M. Meek, in 1811. The second of which 
we get a view was in Shiloh, Jackson County, and the 
father of Jesse Boring was its superintendent. He 
was a remarkable father of some remarkable children, 
lie had grown to manhood witiiout even learning to read, 
and was a married man with children large enough to 
go to school, before he had an opportunity for securing 
even elementary education. He went regularly with 
his children to school and learned to read. He im- 
proved his mind rapidly, and afterwards represented 
the county of Gwinnett for several years in the legisla- 
ture. He superintended the first country school of 
which w^e can find any mention. 

In 1820 a school in Savannah was established, and 
about the same time one was establislied in Augusta, 
which was on the nnioii plan. In 1831, James O. An- 
drew and Lovick Pierce brought the subject prominently 
before the Georgia Conference, and a new impetus was 
given to the work. In all the stations and in the 
country villages Sunday-schools were established. ,The 
catechism and spelling-book and an abridged hymn- 
book, with Bibles, constituted the outfit for work, and 
22-' 



514 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



the schools were far from being as attractive as they 
are now. The size of the circuits, the want of acquaint- 
ance with the mode of conducting them, and the failure 
to recognize the importance of them, caused this work 
to be much neglected in the country ; but steadily there 
has been an improvement, and the Sunday-schools of 
Georgia connected with the M. E. Church South num- 
bered at the conference of 1876, in the North Georgia 
alone, 571 schools, with 29,296 scholars, and $5,807.11 
raised to meet the expense of conducting them. 

The leading men and women of the Church in the 
State are connected with them, and thousands of the 
children are converted annually. In all the circuits 
and stations they exist and afford a place for lay-work- 
ers to put forth all their powers for good. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church has always been a 
missionary church, but an organized society for the pur- 
pose of establishing and sustaining missions was not 
founded until the year 1819. From April, 1819, to 
April, 1820, the total amount of disposable funds re- 
ported was $2,658,164, During the four years from 
1819 to 1823 the whole amount collected was $14,716, 
much less than one conference often in one year now 
contributes. Of this the South Carolina Conference 
contributed in one year $1,374. In 1821 the South 
Carolina Conference Missionary Society was organized, 
and held its first anniversary in Augusta in 1822. The 
officers were: Lewis Myers, President; W. M. Ken- 
nedy, James Norton, Vice-Presidents; Wm. Capers, 
Corresponding Secretary ; John Howard, Secretary, and 
Whitman C. Hill, Treasurer. The total receipts for the 
year were $443. 73f. One mission in Ohio, among the 
Wyandots, was established by the parent society, and 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



515 



the second mission established in the world by this 
afterwards great society was among the Creek Indians 
at Fort Mitchell, seven or eight miles from Colnmbns, 
in the then new State of Alabama. To Wm. Capers was 
delegated the office of establishing it. On the 19th of 
August, 1821, Capers left Augusta for the station. This 
tour was undertaken to ascertain whether the Indians 
would receive the missionaries. Bishop Wightman 
says : At Clinton he w^as joined by Col. R. A. Blount, 
a personal friend, and an invaluable ally in this enter- 
prise. Gov. Clark waited on him in Milledgeville and 
tendered him the official recommendation under the 
seal of the executive department. On the 29th, Col 
Blount and he set out on horseback, each with a blanket, 
great-coat, saddle-bags, and wallet. They entered the 
Creek Nation the 1st September. On the next day, 
Sunday, he preached the first missionary sermon ever 
heard between the Flint and Chattahoochee Rivers. 
This was at the house of a Mr. Spain. In a day or two 
they reached Coweta, the principal part of this Indian 
town, lying on the east side of the Chattahoochee, in 
Georgia." There he witnessed a ball play, of which 
Wightman gives a graphic account in his life of Capers. 
He had an interview the next day with Mcintosh, w^ho 
was afterwards murdered by his own people. The 
matter was taken by the chiefs under advisement, and 
was to be submitted to a general council. It was held 
in November, consent being secured. The Rev, Chris- 
tian G. Hill, then from the Black Swamp Circuit, in 
South Carolina, w^as left in chai-ge of the mission, and 
and Capers returned to the conference. At this session 
the Rev. Isaac Smith, then presiding elder of the 
Athens District, was selected as superintendent of the 



516 



HISTORY Oy METHODISM 



mission. He was thus placed in charge of the second 
mission established in the world by a Church which has 
since almost girdled the globe with its missions. He, with 
his wife and his son James, iiow Dr. James R. Smith, 
went to the wilderness, and he began a school. In it were 
twelve Indian children. Bishop McKen dree remarked, 
that the appointment of Mr. Smith was preceded by 
much prayer, and sm-ely nothing short of a single desire 
to promote the glory of God could have prompted him, 
in the decline of life, to embark in such a hazardous 
enterprise. The majiner in which he conducted him- 
self amid the difficulties that surrounded him evinced 
the wisdom of the choice in selecting Mr. Smith for 
this station." 

Through the prudent management and persevering 
industry of Mr. Smith, and his pious consort, the school 
prospered. In September 23, Mr. Capers again visited 
the Mission. As soon as he was seen, the hills resounded 
vrith ''Mr. Capers is come," and presently, lie says, "I 
was surrounded with a crowd C'f eager, afiectionate, 
and rejoicing children. They sing sweetly, and behave, 
on religious occasions, with great decorum. One of 
our boys in three mouths has learned to read in the 
Testament.*' Andrew Ilamniill had gone out to pre- 
pare the way for the old missionary and his wife, and 
on the fourth day of May. they arrived. 

Difficulties spu^ang up between Col. John Crowell,^ 
the Indian agent. Big Warrior, one of their chiefs, and 
the superintendent, Mr. Capers, calling for the inter- 
position of Mr. Calhoun. Crowell was directed to give 
all countenance to the Mission. The missionaries were 



=^ History of 3Iiss,. p. IIS. 



m GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



517 



permitted to teach the children, but not to preach to 
the adults. 

The faithful old laborer, and his assistant, McDaniel, 
went on patiently doing what they could. ^' Last Tues- 
day night at our family devotions," he says, in a letter 
dated October 23, 1823, '* Brother McDaniel appeared 
unusually drawn out in prayer. After he had done, 
several of the children appeared very serious, and they 
went into our bed-room to bid my wife good-night, as 
many were accustomed to do. One of them, I suppose 
about fifteen years old, was much affected. My wife 
began speaking to her ; in a few minutes she had them 
all around the door on their knees, a number of them 
in deep distress. One young lad, I suppose about six- 
teen, who cannot speak any English, stood by the door, 
serious for some time ; he then got upon his knees in 
great distress, weeping, and I believe praying as well as 
he could. Several of the children prostrated them- 
selves on the floor. I counted seven kneeling around 
my wife as close as they could get^ besides a number 
that were at a little distance from her in the room. 
During the exercise, one girl came to me and told me she 
felt very happy, that she loved God, and that she felt 
the love of Grod in her heart. She is, I suppose, in her 
thirteenth year. After about two hours, the most of 
the girls went to their own room. We soon heard them 
at prayer. Upon opening the door, I saw a sight truly 
affecting : they were all down on their knees, pleading 
with God for mercy. The power of the Lord was felt 
by all present. We have reason to believe that three 
of the children are converted. Two of the lesser ones, 
one a daughter of General Mcintosh in her tenth year, 
the other about the same age, agreed to meet every 



518 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



evening to pray together. They were soon joined by 
others, and that evening I believe the greater part of 
them had heen praying in the woods. Whenever it 
shall please the Lord to remove the opposition that lies 
against our preaching I cannot doubt that the desert 
shall rejoice and blossom as the rose." 

This remarkable revival went on until near all in 
the school were converted. The noble old missionary 
says : " I am ready to cry out — Let me live and die with 
these poor outcasts." Alas, however, for the mission ! 
The difficulties between Georgia and the General Gov- 
ernment, the sale of the lands by McLitosh, and the 
dissatisfaction resulting in the death of Mcintosh, the 
difficulty between Crowell and Mr. Capers, and Crowell 
and the Governor, all united to prevent its success, and 
it was abandoned in 1830, to be renewed under far 
more promising auspices in the Creek Nation in the 
far West. 

The Cherokee Nation of Indians occupied the lower 
part of East Tennessee, western North Carolina, Upper 
Georgia, and western and northern Alabama. They 
were a line tribe, and gladly received the missionaries 
who were sent to them. The Moravians had a mission 
among them in Murray Comity where is now the 
village of Spring Place. The American Board begun 
its work in 1817, and before Methodism entered had 
several stations in Upper Georgia. Job Guest, a native, 
invented an alphabet, and the testaments, and many 
hymns were ti-anslated for them. Some of their most 
promising youths were well educated. They had beau- 
tiful farms, and some of them really elegant homes. 
In 1822, at the request of Richai'd Riley, a native of the 
nation, the preacher from the Point Kock Circuit, in 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



519 



Alabama, Rev. Richard Neely, came among tliem, and 
Rev. Wm. McMahoii held a quarterly meethig at the 
fort. Before the next conference, such were the hopeful 
results of the meeting, that a missionary was appointed. 
The principal part of his circuit was in Alabama, but 
he came across the line into Georgia. Great success 
attended his labors, and they had a camp-meeting in the 
nation. In 1824 three missionai-iee were appointed to 
the work, and before 1827 over 400 were in the Church. 
To assist the travelling preachers, there was now a 
native, Turtle Fields. He was then a young man of 
twenty-seven, was soon received in the Tennessee Con- 
ference and afterwards transferred, when his people re- 
moved West, to the Indian Mission Conference. He 
w^orked well, and died peacefully in 1846, in the forty- 
seventh year of his age. The mission work was now 
very prosperous, and at the conference of 1828, over 
800 members w^ere reported. In 1831 the Cherolee 
Nation was in a state of great excitement. The laws of 
the State were extended over the nation ; the mission- 
aries of the American Board refused to take the oatJ) of 
allegiance to the State which was required, and were 
arrested and tried, and two of theui condemned to im- 
prisonment. This is not the place to give an account 
of this sad affair, and it is sufficient to say that the 
missionaries were not inhumanly treated, and were soon 
released. The Methodist preachers were not interfered 
with, and the work went on steadily. In 1829, John 
13. McFerrin, now Dr. McFerrin, was on the Wills 
Yalley and Oustanaula Circuit ; North Fields on the 
Cuosawattee in Murray County ; Greenbury Gar- 
rett on the Chattooga ; and Thos. J. Elliot on the 
Conesauga. The work continued to prosper under the 



520 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



charge of the Tennessee Conference, but the Indians 
were continuall}^ moving to their new homes in Arkan- 
sas; and in 1835 the Ilolston Conference took charge 
of the remnant left. There was still 521 Indians in 
the various charges in 1836. At this conference the 
Newtown District, under the charge of T>. B. Cum- 
ming, was formed, and the few remaining stations fell 
under its care. Although the commotion among the 
Indians was great, the work prospered, and 752 Indians 
were reported as members at the next conference. But 
the time of their departure was fixed, and soldiers 
marched through the nation, and gathered them up, 
and marched them away to a distant and to them 
unknown land. The religious life of the faithful 
Cherokees never shone more brilliantly. They had 
fasted and prayed, that God would avert this doom from 
them ; but when it came they bowed their heads sub- 
missively. They left the graves of their fathers, their 
own humble homes, their beautiful mountains and 
valleys, and made their way sadly to the new land ; 
only God and God's faithful servants went with them. 
When they reached the far West, they found the mission- 
ary, and the mission school already there, and there still 
the work goes on. The punic faith of the white man 
has been their curse in days gone by, and shall they 
again be driven from their prairies as they have been 
driven from their mountains ? God in his mercy, and 
man in his justice forbid it ! 

We have already given in the current history a full 
account of the domestic mission work ; but the work 
among the slaves, while it might be justly placed in this 
category, deserves a special notice. 

The negroes of Georgia v^ere of two very different 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



521 



classes. The uegroes of the interior were nearly all of 
them from Maryland, Virginia, North and South Caro- 
lina. They were American born, atid many of them 
had descended from AmeriCo- African parents. Their 
ancestry had been imported into this country a century 
or more before. They had received some early train- 
ing, and if they had not become Christians, they had at 
least ceased to be heathens. They were cared for 
by the Methodist preachers from the beginning of their 
work, and many of them were faithful Christians. The 
large plantations of after time had not yet become com- 
mon, and as in every county church there was a place 
for them, and in every town church there were galleries 
for their special use, the negroes received as regu- 
lar church services, as the whites. But there was 
another and a very large class of negroes under the 
charge of the Georgia Conference. These were those 
who had been more lately introduced into Georgia from 
Africa. The trustees of the colony forbade the intro- 
duction of slaves or rum ; but after the surrender 
of the charter to the crown, these laws were re- 
pealed, and even before the revolution, large numbers 
of slaves were imported chiefly to cultivate the rice 
plantations, which were being then opened and success- 
fully conducted. The Sea Islands, in which the Sea 
Island cotton alone was made, were now settled, and the 
culture of this variety of cotton extensively entered 
into. This industry demanded much labor, and Afri- 
cans were im^^orted in large numbers. As they lived 
on large plantations, remote from negroes of American 
birth, and subject to no direct civilizing or Christian- 
izing influences, they preserved in many respects their 
Pagan features, almost unchanged. After the invention 



522 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



of the cotton-gin, a great impetus was given to cotton- 
producing, and as the slave trade was to be forbidden by 
law after 1808, a great impetus was given to it before 
that epoch, and as land and slaves were both cheap, and 
cotton high, manj^ new negroes were settled in gangs 
upon the higher lands of the interior. It will be seen 
from this surve}' that tlie African negroes introduced 
into these Sea Island sections, were likely to preserve 
forever their African features of character. The owners 
of these plantations were living in the cities, or if on the 
plantation at all, only there for a few months in winter 
time ; and their slaves had little intercourse with them. 

The culture of rice and the culture of Sea Ishind 
cotton was comparatively light labor; though, at sea- 
sons, it demanded a very lengthened and constant work, 
and as it suited these poor heathens, they increased 
rapidly. Living in their own colonies, they were not 
discontented. They were preserved, by the slave gov- 
ernment under which they were, from the gross vices 
to which, in their African life, they had been subject^ 
such as murder and rapine ; but in the vices of theft, 
lasciviousness, lying, they were steeped. Such was the 
condition, not of thew^iole negro-race in the South, but 
of the veiy considerable part of it. It was the condition 
of these semi-barbarians, and more than semi-heathen, 
that moved the great heart of William Capers, and led 
him to work for the founding of mission stations among 
them. He found among the largest planters efficient 
coadjutors, one especially. Col. Morris, a son of Gover- 
neur Morris, of New York, and an Episcopalian, entered 
into it with all his earnestness and zeal.^ 



* In 1859, while returning from New York to Georgia, I had the 
privile^ e of passing several days on a steamer with this excellent 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-IS65. 



523 



This work was now to be commenced in Georgia. 

The first work among the negroes was, however, done 
in ISolj among the more intelligent negroes of the up- 
conntry, on the large plantations on the rivers. In 1833, 
Willis D. Mathews and Saml. I. Bryan were sent to tlie 
rice plantations ; preachers were detailed to work 
among the negroes especially, through all the charges, 
where there were many of them. 

It was the purpose of the Church to give religious 
instruction to these people, and to catechise them with 
care. This was attempted on the larger plantations, 
and to some extent carried out ; but, gradually, it became 
the usage of the missionary to the blacks, mainly to 
preach to the large congregations of colored people who 
came out to hear the word. 

It is our office more to relate facts than to read homi- 
lies ; but we can but feel that a work of much greater 
permanence would have been done in the domestic 
field, both among whites and slaves, if our preachers 
had not preached less, but had taught more. 

The missionaries met with many trials. While there 
was much sympathy lavished, and justly so, upon the 
man who went across the seas on a foreiOT mission : 
while he was abundantly provided for, the missionary 
to the blacks received a scanty support, and but little 
consideration. To many of the fields of labor it was 
exile from refined society, life among the degraded and 
ignorant, toil put forth without much apparent result, 

man. He mentioned the intense opposition of his neighbors to this 
work, but as he had the missionary on his plantations, they soon sa\Y 
its beneficent effect and withdrew it, and spoke with much dehght 
of the wonderful change which came over them when they came 
under the fascinating influence of Wm. Capers. 



524 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



the inlialing of malaria, and often meeting early deatti ; 
but, despite all this, the work went on, and successfully. 
The negro on the rice plantations did not become, in 
a generation, as intelligent, consistent, and Christian 
as the Anglo-Saxon who had been surrounded by ele- 
vating influences for centuries. His moral tone was not 
high, his views were crude, liis errors many ; but he 
ceased to be a heathen, and often-time sincerely loved 
and sincerely strove to serve his great Father in 
Heaven, and his Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We 
liave already spoken of the great work among the more 
intelligent colored people of the up-country, and espe- 
cially of the towns and cities. In 1860, there was 27,000 
colored people in the Church in Georgia. 

When the war ended, and with its end came a change 
so radical as that of emancip^ation from slavery, it was 
not unnatural that a race so easily influenced should be 
persuaded that they ought to change their Church rela- 
tions, especially when military power was brought to 
bear to effect it. So the Methodist Episcopal Church 
South lost, perhaps, one-half of her colored members. 
They joined the African Methodist, the Zion Methodist, 
and the Methodist Episcopal Church; many did, but 
not all. Many of the more intelligent still clung to 
their old church relations, and often at great risk to 
themselves. Among them were Sandy Kendall, Lucius 
Holsey, David Deas, David Bentley, John Zorn, minis- 
ters, and many private members. A Conference was 
organized for them. The property of the Church occu- 
pied hj them was transferred to them, and they are 
prosperous. Aq strife has now nearly ceased, we trust 
the day is not distant when all the colored people 
will form a compact body of pious Methodists. 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1SG5. 



525 



BENEVOLENCE. 

The early days of Methodism were days of poverty 
and trial. The early Methodists in Georgia were most 
of them poor, and save the quarterly collections which 
were carried to conference, there was no appeal to them 
for any kind of pecuniary contributions. There was, 
as yet, no provision made for worn-out preachers, or for 
their widows or orphans. The first society organized 
for this purpose in the South Carolina Conference was, 
as w^e have seen, organized in Sparta, in the December 
of 1806. It was called the Societj^ for Special Belief ; 
the funds collected were distributed among needy travel- 
ling and local preachers alid their families ; and thelirst 
contribution made by it, was to Isaac Smith, when his 
house was burned in Camden. Its resources were not 
considerable. It received now and then a bequest, and 
Thomas Grant left it, on his death, quite a quantity of 
wild land in the then western counties of the State, 
and at least three thousand dollars in money. Josiah 
Flournoy made it an annual contribution of a hundred 
dollars, and Lewis Myers left it quite a legacy. This 
society still exists, and at every conference distributes 
several hundred dollars to the needy. It was after the 
Georgia Conference was organized that an effort was 
made to provide for the support of superannuated 
preachers, their widows and orphans, by a general col- 
lection. This conference collection aimed not only to 
do this, but to supply the deficiency in the allowance of 
the preachers. The funds used for this purpose are ap- 
propriated by the Finance Board to all claimants, annu- 
ally ; but, for some years past, effective preachers have 
had no claim upon it, and it is distributed among the 
wwn-out preachers and their families alone. 



52G 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



In 1836 Silas Griffin left nearly $4,000, the interest 

of which was to be added to this collection ; and, in 1836, 

a society was incorporated to hold this and other funds 

for the same purpose. It, too, w^as called the Relief 

Society ; but the similarity of names between it and the 

Society of Special Relief, led to a change of name, 

and it is now known as the Preacher's Aid Society. A 

tj 

sum of nearly $3,000 was paid to the Georgia Conference 
for her interest in the Book-room in Charleston, which 
was added to this bequest of Griffin. The charter for- 
bade more than six per cent, to be paid out annually, 
and the remainder was to be added to the principal. In 
the course of thirty years the original property of the 
conference in the fund w^as doubled ; but losses from 
bankruptcy, and especially from collecting its funds in 
Confederate money, reduced its assets to about one-half . 
This society still exists and receives much less attention 
than its merit deserves. 

Another society has been recently organized among 
the preachers and laymen, to provide homes for the 
widows and orphans of preachers. It has no vested 
funds, and collects a mortuary fee, on the death of each 
member, from the remaining ones ; preachers only bene- 
ficiaries. The clerical members pay three dollars ; 
the lay members, one. It has been in existence but a 
short time, but has already done much good. 

Through the exertions of Dr. Jesse Boring, a home, 
both in North and South Georgia, was established for 
orphans. The North Georgia home is near Decatur, 
the South Georgia near Macon. The prospects for each 
are bright, and each will become a place of refuge for 
the orphans of all the Methodists in the States, in time 
to come. The missionary collections we have already 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



527 



noted, under their proper head. We liave now fulfilled 
our design in tracing the history of Methodism in 
Georgia, from its beginning, in 1786, to the division of 
the Georgia Conference, in 1866. 

If Georgia civilization is a faihire ; if there is gross 
corruption in her public men ; if there are grievous here- 
sies over the land ; if life and liberty and property are 
imperilled; if education and the finer features of life 
are neglected, Methodism is largely responsible for it. 
The Baptists and Methodists have moved side by side 
in the onward march of the white settlers into the 
wilds of Georgia. They have alike aimed to preach a 
pure Gospel, and a like success has attended them ; 
and the influence they have exerted upon Georgia 
civilization has been immense. This influence is seen 
in the colleges, the churches, the orthodox evangelical 
Christianity, and the law and order of the Georgia 
people. When they began their work, there was ram- 
pant infidelity in high places, and almost total religious 
darkness in the low ; but they were peculiarly fitted 
for the work of evangelizing, and they have gone on 
together. As fair historians of religions events, while 
we tell the story of our own Church : while we tell of 
Ivy, Humphries, Major, Lee, Hull, Pierce, Olin, Few, 
we cannot pass over Silas Mercer, the Marshalls, 
Bottsford, Holcomb, Screven, Jesse Mercer, King, 
Milner, and Dawson. 

These were true men of God, w^ho preached repent- 
ance towards God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, 
and had no fellowship with unrighteousness. The an- 
]ials of the Baptist Church in Georgia are rich in stories 
of self-denying Christian eft'ort. The Presbyterian 
Chu]'ch is, perhaps, from its economy, better suited to 



528 



HISTORY OF METHODISM 



the thickly peopled country than one which has its pop- 
Illation to gatiier ; but Cummiiigs, Doak, Wilson, Wad- 
dell, and many others, have been earnest workers, side by 
side, and nearly alwaj^s in harmony with their Metho- 
dist brethren. For nearly one hundred years Georgia 
Methodism has been an almost unbroken harmony. Save 
a few small secessions from it, there has been no strife 
in its borders ; and, even in these secessions, the doctrines 
of Methodism have been preserved, and only some fea- 
tures of her polity have been given up. 

The same doctrines have been preached which Wesley 
preached. The same church-government which Asbury 
directed is controlling now, save as it has been modified ; 
and the same simple usages in worship which belonged 
to our fathers belong to us. 

Some changes have passed over the Church, but they 
have been often more chano-es in the names of thint^^s 
than in the things themselves. The class-meeting has 
given way to the social prayer-meetings; the old quar- 
terly conference to the district conference. 

The rigid rules on dress are no longer in force. These 
are some of the changes which have passed over the 
Church. 

The district conference has more than supplied the 
place the largely attended quarterly meeting left vacant. 
Pastoral care has done much to supply the lack of class- 
meetings. The Sunday-school has become a potent in- 
strument of good, and religious newspapers come in as 
an assistant of great value to the Pastor. 

The support of the ministry, and of all the institutions 
of the Church, is far beyond that accorded in the first 
and second eras of the Church. 

Prone as we are to magnify the past, at the expense 



IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. 



529 



of the present, we caiiiiot study the story of our past 
years without feeling tliat the aggregate of good now 
goes beyond that of any equal period in past years. 

There is as much heroism in the ministry, as much 
self sacrifice in the laity as a mass, as there has been in 
days gone by. Ile\'ivals of religion are more frequent, 
and religious declensions are less so. The Church for 
the last fifty years has knowm no such period as that 
between 1810 and 1823. The ministry, and the people 
are better educated^ and piety is not less sincere, though 
it may be somewhat less demonstrative. The civiliza- 
tion of Georgia is of a higher order ; there are no sucli 
gross revelries now as were known then on muster-days; 
no such open immorality and infidelity tolerated among 
public men. No regular prize-fights, with tlieir disgust- 
ing attendant&. Josiali Elournoy nearly lost his life 
because he strove to persuade the State to establish a 
prohibitory liquor law; but now whole sections of 
country have forbidden, by popular vote, any liqnor- 
shops in their territory. While Georgia is not a pu.re 
State, but one regularly elected legislatn.re was ever 
know^n to be bribed, and that was in 1794:; and wliile 
she has many criminals, the number of white con- 
victs is far below that of many of tlie older American 
States. 

A church which numbers nearly one hundred thou- 
sand white communicants, and as many colored ; which 
reaches with its infiuence at least half the people of a 
State, so powerful as that of Georgia, has certainly a 
responsibility resting upon her, immense in its magni- 
tude, and we who have entered into the labor of our 
fathers, have learned from these pages how these re- 
sponsibilities should be met. 



530 



HISTORY OF METHODISM. 



We now somewliat reluctantly lay down our pen. 

To no one is this work less satisfying than to him who 
has Vv^ntten it. He only asks the reader, v/ith whom he 
now parts, to believe that he has labored earnestly to 
tell the true story of Methodism in Georgia and 
Florida. 




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